Petrified by Lightning
The lightning made me a bit nervous. I was closer than I preferred to be. But the fossilized tree trunk in front of me was nonplussed.
Our group was supposed to be chasing supercells and tornadoes in the Great Plains the last week of June 2022. The day I arrived, a cold air mass moved into the Midwest producing a storm photographer’s worst nightmare: severely clear skies for the next two weeks.
So, our small group of storm chasers drove from Denver, Colorado to the desert Southwest where the weather forecast was calling for isolated monsoon storms. It proved to be a wonderful consolation prize.
Petrified Forest National Park
One of the many beautiful places where we chased monsoon storms was northeastern Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park.
The Petrified Forest is known for its tree fossils from the Late Triassic Epoch, about 207 to 225 million years ago. At that time, the park was a humid, sub-tropical forested plain near the equator.
Most organic matter either rapidly decays or is eaten by other organisms. But if it’s quickly buried in mineral rich sediments, such as volcanic runoff, the organic matter may become fossilized. The sediment that fossilized the Park’s logs into rainbow colors is part of the 800-foot thick Chinle Formation.
About 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau (which contains the park) was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All the park's rock layers above the Chinle were slowly removed by wind and water, revealing the logs.
The Shot
Photographing lightning always makes me jittery. That day was no exception. To be safe, we try to stay six or more miles away and retreat to our van whenever we feel rain.
After reaching the Park’s entrance, the gap to the storm slowly closed as we drove. Our van stopped at a small parking lot with a promising view. We hiked to a small rise, and I began looking for a foreground.
I paused in front of this log and set up the camera facing the receding storm. I first took a series of shots to blend in Photoshop to ensure sharpness from the nearest grains of sand to the distant horizon. Next, I focused on infinity and turned on my lightning trigger (it senses a bolt and triggers the shutter in milliseconds). I just had to wait and hope for a strike.
As I waited, I tried to imagine being there almost a quarter billion years ago surrounded by a jungle and admiring what must have been a splendid conifer tree.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus