It was over 20 years ago I saw the brightest stars in the night sky in my life, and ironically it was the furthest I had ever been from the stars themselves as I was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Now, I unexpectedly have seen the second brightest night sky in my life here in the tiny town of La Veta, Colorado. Strolling outside the Airbnb it was like the Universe had suddenly created 5 times as many stars in the heavens. It was a spectacular site and a nice bonus on what has been a hard photo & drone work trip.
As best as I can remember, for the first time since I was a kid, I saw a movie at a drive in theater. The experience was great (the movies were not)! This was part of an ultra-rare, full weekend off, out of town, not part of a photo job holiday. It was me and Jessica and our dogs Kiki and Artie all in the M3 with the top down completely under the stars, looking up at the big screen. And the stars! They were so bright and vivid! Not since I spent the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon did they look as vivid to me.
As Kiki and I were returning from our customary after dinner walk, before us in the deep twilight sky was a large cloud flashing from within. I went out onto my back patio with Nikkor 80-200mm mounted to my Nikon D300 mounted to my Induro CT214 tripod having set the shutter speed to bulb mode. I put the focus on infinity, the focal length to 80mm, locked the ballhead, connected the cable release and began making long exposures noting the flashes of light.
Heat lightning is a common sight in the Florida night sky, but rarely do you see distinct bolts of lightning creep horizontally across an isolated cloud. Usually the sky just flashes in general, and unfocused giant flash bulb. Tonight this cloud formation appeared as a witch's cauldron brewing a silent power.
Clouds illuminated from within before the night sky - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 14.7 sec bulb mode tripod mounted with cable releaseStill, the lightning was very elusive and most of my shots turned out like the one above, revealing only the flash, not the bolt.
