Superbolt Lightning?

For 10 months in 2011 and 2012 I lived in very rural western South Dakota, USA. How rural was it?

• It was one of the few places in the continental USA 50 or more miles from the nearest McDonalds. In fact, the closest drive-thru of any fast-food chain was about 100 miles away, in Belle Fourche, SD.
• I had no Verizon cell service where I lived. But if I got on a high hill, parked, and placed my cell phone on the outside of my truck facing a distant cell tower, after 5 to 15 minutes I could usually send and receive texts. Sending photos was out of the question.
• Best of all, if you don’t look too closely for fences and power lines, I was able to take many pictures that didn’t look much different than had they been taken 1000 years ago. With care, I could often take pictures that showed very little to none of man’s activities and structures.

I enjoyed going out on dark nights to take lightning photos. Perhaps that’s not the smartest thing to do, but I told family that if they found me killed by lightning some morning, hopefully my last photo was good enough for National Geographic Magazine. 😉

Daylight lightning is more challenging, but I got a few good shots.

But my shoot of July 11, 2012 was unique. It was absolutely pitch-dark after the sun was fully set and the clouds rolled in. When there was no lightning, I could not see my hand waving in front of my eyes. I took quite a few picture of “normal” lightning.

But mixed in with the “normal” lightning were brighter-than-daylight flashes of light. I downloaded the shoot into Adobe Lightroom, made Virtual Copies of these super-bright lightning photos, and made the virtual copies as dark as possible. I was astonished at the results!

1 of 3. As shot – very bright!

3 of 3. Exposure completely reduced. The bolt on the right was apparently quite close. 🙂

1 of 2. As shot – very bright!

2 of 2. Exposure completely reduced. Impressive.

2 of 2. Exposure completely reduced. Impressive.

1 of 2. As shot.

2 of 2. Exposure completely reduced.

1 of 2. As shot.

2 of 2. Exposure completely reduced.

I have no trouble believing — whatever these lightning bolts were — that they could kill 300 reindeer if they happened to be clustered where the bolt struck. Remember the story?

Some of these photos deserve Bible quotes. 🙂

I have learned so much from photography! For more of my story, be sure to read my post, Learning To See Beauty.

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