![]() ![]() I got my most recent dose of compensation last Wednesday evening, in this year’s first (of two) Grand Canyon monsoon photo workshops. It’s often a recipe for failure, but the infrequent successes more than compensate. In recent years I frequently find myself pointing at the potential lightning spot that has the composition I like most, shunning the one that appears most likely to produce lightning. Ten years later, I’ve reached the point in my lightning photography where I’ve had enough successful captures that I can afford to be a little more selective. And I also never forget the thrill the first time my camera captured lightning. I’d have given anything to have just one frame with lightning, composition be damned. I’ll never forget the first time I traveled to the Grand Canyon with the sole desire to photograph lightning, and those first few fruitless days on the rim, pointing my camera toward a promising cell only to see it fizzle. An alternate approach to photographing lightning is to target the rain cell with the nicest composition, regardless of the strength of its potential-then hope.īecause I’ve learned that lightning neophytes are usually thrilled to capture any lightning, I generally encourage my workshop students, most of whom have never captured great (or any) lightning images, to favor success over the best composition by simply pointing in whatever direction the lightning is most likely to fire. While the vast majority of these potential lightning sources never deliver, my original approach to photographing them was to maximize my chances by identifying and targeting the cell with the most potential, without concern for the composition. Right now I’m at Grand Canyon, trying to take advantage of its expansive vistas that frequently provide views of multiple rain cells with lightning potential. In fact, it sometimes feels like the lightning is consciously avoiding the composition I want, always in favor of something much less interesting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been photographing lightning and seen a beautiful composition-some perfect combination of landscape and conditions-in a different direction, and said to myself, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great if the lightning fired right there.” Unfortunately, lightning is a fickle phenomenon that rarely does what photographers want it to do. Lightning photography requires a lot of the show up and wait approach, because all the compositional skill in the world can’t make a great lightning image if the lightning doesn’t happen. Heavenly Beam, Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona Horsetail Fall and El Capitan, Four Mile Trail, Yosemite
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