“The difference between the right word and the almost the right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug”     Mark Twain

I was speechless. Words failed me.

On June 7 near Amistad, New Mexico, I stood transfixed by a glorious supercell. Backlit by the setting sun, it dominated the sky.

Sheets of rain on the right were transilluminated yellow by the setting sun. And in the middle were the rotating layers of the mesocyclone updraft.  Finally, there were contrasting clear blue skies on the left.  

Shades of green peeked out between the rotating layers, the harbinger of copious hail heading our way. Thunder reverberated across the open land, punctuated by the occasional cloud-to-ground bolt of spectacular lightning.

And all the while, a herd of cattle to our left was oblivious to the approaching danger.

I attached a sensor to my camera that opened the shutter when it detected a lightning bolt. Then I just stood there, being in the moment and soaking in the experience.

Most of the bolts the sensor detected were cloud-to-cloud and invisible. But then a magnificent cloud-to-ground strike occurred, and I knew I had captured my best image. Not long afterwards we were directed back to our vans to avoid the hail approaching us.

It’s family time for two weeks, so the next Friday Photo will be July 11.

Thanks for looking,

Chuck Derus

Zenfolio | Chuck Derus