Happy Friday indeed!
photo published in /2022/08/05
August 5, 2022
Friday
Old-Fashioned Lightning
Lightning strikes the Gulf of Mexico as seen from over Upham Beach in St. Pete Beach, Florida. (Matt Buchanan/St. Pete Beach, Florida)
We had perfect thunderstorm conditions tonight–one rolled over us, heading northwest out over the Gulf, right before sunset. It had quite a bit of lightning activity, too. I didn't have time to setup my full frame camera, so I grabbed the iPhone 12 and attempted to catch lightning.
I shot for about twenty minutes, capturing about a hundred images, each right after I saw lightning. This was frustrating and fun at the same time–I kept probably seven. I'm posting two.
It gives you a real sense of the time it takes to process what you see and turn it into action. Frustrating to watch a lightning strike and then feel your finger hit the button a millisecond (or more) too late. Seven out of a hundred plus is decent, I think!
photo published in /2022/08/05
Lightning strikes the Gulf of Mexico as seen from over Upham Beach in St. Pete Beach, Florida. (Matt Buchanan/St. Pete Beach, Florida)
This is my second favorite shot of the storm.
photo published in /2022/08/05
The timing of the storm was perfect, leaving great cloud cover in its wake for a beautiful sunset.
photo published in /2022/08/05
Here's to thunderstorms and sunsets, in that order. A hastily-made old fashioned.was the perfect end to this day.
photo published in /2022/08/05
Daystream founder and dev
About today's feature image
This is a heavily cropped and horizontally flipped capture of a lightning strike over the Gulf of Mexico. I flipped it to make sure the lightning bolt stays in frame on smaller screens.
(St. Pete Beach, Florida)