This was my first night lightning photo, using a car top to brace a then-20-year-old Mamiya 35-mm SLR. A bolt hurdled thousands of feet of clear air between the main storm tower and a flanking tower, prompting shouts of, “Did you get that, did you get that?” from Rich Thompson, who was standing nearby enjoying the electrical display. Back then, I had to wait days until the slide film was developed by a trustworthy lab to find out, without the nearly instantaneous confirmation of a digital camera. The strike had a few ohms of resistance to overcome, perhaps? Filamentous “hairs” protruded from the big channel in several places, each a failed step leader. In-cloud lightning set the main storm tower aglow from within, revealing cloud structure.
Norman OK (15 Sep 86) Looking SE
35.1998, -97.4421Tower-to-Tower Lightning
This was my first night lightning photo, using a car top to brace a then-20-year-old Mamiya 35-mm SLR. A bolt hurdled thousands of feet of clear air between the main storm tower and a flanking tower, prompting shouts of, “Did you get that, did you get that?” from Rich Thompson, who was standing nearby enjoying the electrical display. Back then, I had to wait days until the slide film was developed by a trustworthy lab to find out, without the nearly instantaneous confirmation of a digital camera. The strike had a few ohms of resistance to overcome, perhaps? Filamentous “hairs” protruded from the big channel in several places, each a failed step leader. In-cloud lightning set the main storm tower aglow from within, revealing cloud structure.
Norman OK (15 Sep 86) Looking SE
35.1998, -97.4421