Behind The Shot
Here you'll find some interesting stories & insights behind a few of the most memorable images that I've managed to capture.
A Beautiful Monster
This was one of the most intense storms I've ever photographed. It also taught me a very valuable lesson, when to retreat!
Moments after I took this photograph, I left my get away way too late & paid the price. I got blown over & was left laying over top of my camera gear trying to protect it from the crazy horizontal rain, wind & bolts of lightning raining down left, right & centre. Not being able to get up off the ground due to my injury, I had to wait it out until the bulk of the storm had passed (it was still pouring rain & windy mind you), before crawling along the ground until I found a spot to pull myself back up onto my feet.
This moment/ storm is still very clearly embedded into my mind. Not only for it's insane power, but the amazing colours it threw out! It was right on sunset, so it had an amazing orange glow to the West & on the other side of the storm (where it had merged with another storm cell & was rapidly intensifying) had a very menacing, dark blue/ green tinge. I was fortunate enough to have captured this bolt of lightning right in between the two. Also featuring the Forster Tuncurry Bridge.
Good times...
Unicorn Shot
In the storm chasing community, an image with a rainbow & a lightning strike is known as "a Unicorn shot". This was my first "Unicorn shot". I've been lucky enough to capture a few now, but this one is by far my favorite.
I love the light coming through the clouds, the sailing boat & of course the lightning & the rainbow. All in the one shot!
Loud Light
This is probably the most powerful lightning strike that I've witnessed to date! It still blows me away every time I look at it.
On this night of storm chasing, I headed out the door at approximately 9pm (after procrastinating for around half an hour or so) & didn't return home until around 3am. There was still the odd lightning bolt dropping around the place, but my body was just too sore & tired for me to have kept on going sadly, due to my injury.
After chasing this storm cell to the south for a few hours I decided to head back into town as the storm cell was slowly heading that way, but was also starting to slow up in the lightning activity department. As I drove back I thought I'd set up at North One Mile Beach & try to snag a shot from there as the storm was heading straight towards that location. I waited for about fifteen minutes before the first bolt of lightning dropped. I had no idea where abouts it struck, but it seemed as though it hit somewhere behind me out to sea.
Moments later the air felt extremely static & thick. Soon after the hair on the back of neck & on my arms started to stand up, when all of a sudden this enormous blot of lightning flew over my head creating one of the loudest bangs I've ever heard & hit somewhere on the otherside of the beach. It was so powerful it lit the place up like a Christmas Tree. As you can see, it lit up the whole beach, clearly illuminating Cape Hawke as well & even the ocean! Never have I seen a lightning bolt light up an area so large before!
This image also made it into the Bureau of Meteorlogy's 2022 Calendar representing the month of May.
Close Call
This was another wild time.
Definitely up there as one of the closet lightning strikes I've had land near me! Didn't seem to bother the pelicans any though!
This storm came hard & fast with a lot of random lightning, very heavy rain & strong winds. It also caused an accident on the bridge in the background, as the vision was reduced to nothing basically, causing a couple of cars to collide.
While all of that was going down, I set my camera up under the shelter & hoped for the best. Next minute, this all mighty KaBoom went off causing me to duck for cover & possibly make a yelp noise of some sort. When I regathered myself, I checked the camera to see if I'd managed to capture anything exciting. I was extremely pleased to see I had indeed captured one very close bolt of lightning hitting the water maybe only 100m or so away!
Such a buzz! (see what I did there).