A thundering sunset in Buckeye
(click image to view on black and so it also fits your monitor // canon 5d mark ii, canon 85mm 1.8, f/10, iso 400, 13 sec // buy print)
Two nights in a row an isolated thunderstorm just appeared over Buckeye…which is west of Phoenix. It’s just kind of a rare thing to see that happen, so the second night I didn’t let it go to waste.
I flew out there and arrived east of Buckeye to shoot this giant storm that kept dropping lightning everywhere. Normally I would get closer, but my goal was to capture not just the lightning, but hopefully the cloud above it. Especially because there was still some fading light from the sun to add to the composition. I decided not to crop this one because I liked the transition of color upwards and the way the lightning comes out of the base of the storm at the very bottom.
Considering this was on the shorter side…only 13 seconds, getting that many strikes was awesome. And there is also something cool about powerplants, powerlines…something electrical being framed with a lightning storm.
Nature’s power meets man’s awesome! This is great Mike, you had the perfect vantage point for this! The purple sky adds incredible drama too, well done dude!
Killer. Love the clouds and for once power lines add to a shot. Just so good.
It’s so amazing seeing electricity in the wild. Really cool shot. I can almost smell the electrified air here…
That is SICK! Love the framin with the ominous cloud formation taking up the top 2/3 of the frame! Great work.
Wow, that lightning mixed in with the sunset is awesome! Well done!
I love that you didn’t crop this, becuase it lets you see the full scope of it. It’s beautiful.
I really have become a sucker for having power lines in lightning images this year. Very well done.
Electrifying! Cheap and easy pun but it works – sweet shot Mike!
I really dig this image, Mike. Extremely well done!!