We set up on the northwest side of a band of elevated thunderstorms, watching and photographing lightning for well over an hour (including some earlier cloud structure shots with the last vestiges of fading twilight). Electrically active cores and convective plumes moved toward the north-northeast along the line from their origins, strobing with discharges inside and out during their treks. On this shoot, one of my last with Provia slide film, I captured so many photographs of this type of lightning flash that one night alone could stock a lifetime’s worth of a documentary image library. Yet, despite their frequency, every one of the middle to upper level lightning flashes was beautiful in its own right. I like the intricate patterns that such discharges create, not only for their splendor but for their uniqueness. No two lightning strokes follow the same form, and their variety is as endless as the chaos of the storm-scale atmosphere itself.
4 NW Rehm TX (10 Jun 5) Looking SE
36.0075, -102.674