
The Show

by Brad Brizek
Title
The Show
Artist
Brad Brizek
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photograph
Description
This is a multiple exposure of an awe inspiring storm over the White Tanks mountain range that borders the metropolis on the west side. A part of the mountain range is a park that borders the nearby cities/towns of Buckeye, Surprise, Waddell, Litchfield park and Glendale, Arizona.
Monsoon season in Arizona is unlike that of, say, southeast Asia in that it doesn't rain every day. Instead, a temporary shift in the winds from west to the south brings moisture up from the Gulf of California. Normally, the Sonoran Desert and the high country to the north are bone dry due to the Sierra Nevadas blocking rain fromo the west. The humid south winds combine with temperatures up to 125F to spawn large, isolated thunderstorms.
This storm was in the perfect location at the right time. I was working until about 8pm, and drove as fast as I could home to catch the building storm. The thunderstorm was on the west side of the White Tanks and the winds kept it pinned in the same location for almost 3 hours. I had scouted out this spot a few weeks earlier, so I knew where I wanted to set up.
With a lightning flash every 30 seconds or so, I made multiple exposures and combined them in Photoshop to replicate what could be done with multiple exposures on a single piece of film. The storm had a wonderful purple hue due to the blue night sky combining with the flashes of lightning and light from Phoenix.
I was lucky to capture this, as the Arizona monsoon season only lasts for about three months, and only 4 weeks out of those are considered the peak of activity. Storms rarely happen where and when you want them to, but this one was special.
I may have gotten away with cheating mother nature here, though, as the wide angle lens I used doesn't really convey how close the lightning really was. In fact, I was only about 10 feet or so away from the 30-something foot Saguaro cactus on the right. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, as they say.
Uploaded
August 9th, 2014
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