God definitely has a sense of humor. Tonight he laughed at me–a lot–and I laughed with him–most of the time.
One of my many sub-hobbies of my bigger photography hobby is lighting photography. It requires an intense mixture of bravery, patience, and patience. Oh yeah… and lightning. I drove around in the heavy part of the storm looking for a sheltered place to set up. I ended up letting the storm pass looking for a spot. Eventually I settled in a ramada at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler. I aimed my camera at the horizon and began firing.
You see, to shoot lightning, you normally need to hold the shutter open until a bolt strikes. Easy enough, except where there are other lights (like street lights) on that horizon. I had six to ten seconds to before the other lights would ruin the photo. So for a good 15 minutes I passed the time taking a photo every 6 seconds. It seemed like every bolt (and there weren’t many) came inbetween exposures. I cursed aloud the third time it happened. A few minutes later, my SD card is filling up and I stop to dump some images, and I miss a spectacular bolt. Finally I decide to leave after 25 minutes, having gotten nothing more than a distant cloud-to-cloud and as I pick up my camera and tripod and beautiful bolt strikes right where my camera was pointed.
He laughed. I laughed. I said, “Okay! I stay a while longer and wait for it.” And it came. I walked away with 15 nice shots, but I had to first fall victim to God’s pranks.
"Cloud to Ground": One of my better lighting shots from tonight.
I guess God is funny like that.