Thunder stars. That was a new one for me. I drove 14 hours to the center of Nebraska -- one of my favorite places in the world -- toward dark skies to view the Perseid Meteor shower and the Milky Way. My first night threatened to rain, and as I crossed into Nebraska, I almost turned around, and started plotting another destination In the end, returning to a special place I knew won out, and I'm so glad it did.
Merritt Reservoir is a, well, a reservoir, a lake formed by an earthen dam, and the darkest place in the area is toward the southern end of the reservoir. Looking across the water after the the sun set and the sky grew darker, I could see a line of storms moving through, and almost started packing up my tent. Then I noticed the meteors start to appear, and the Milky way rising behind me. Stunning.
When I turned back around to check the storm, I saw a clear line of clouds moving parallel to the lake, just scrolling past from left to right across my field of view, never growing nearer. And what came next was one of the most intense lightning storms I've ever seen, miles away, flashing siliently, as the stars emerged into the darkness of the night behind them.
So: behind me I had the rising Milky Way in one of the darkest skies in the continental US. Meteors were falling, a few visible every few minutes. In front of me was a lightning storm reflecting in the lake, and a clear sky full of stars. I was so overwhelmed it took me about 10 minutes of taking it all in to think to take a photo. And I had to totally make it up as I went along, because honestly, how often do you have to expose for lightning-lit clouds and stars in one photo?
Because it was now very dark, my camera's autofocus couldn't find anything to focus on. I had to manually focus on the far clouds in small spurts while they were lit by lightning flashes. Then I had to find a shutter speed that could capture each rippple of lightning as multiple bolts flahsed between clouds across the whole sky. Then I dialed in the ISO and tweaked the shutter to get the look and exposure I wanted, with as little noise as possible. Then I just let it rip, continually exposing to capture as much lightning as possible. I really loved this shot in particular, when almost the entire system of clouds was lit at once, casting its glow on the lake, but never drowning out the stars.
It was one of the most special things I've ever seen, and one of the most overwhelmingly joyful hours of my life. All because I decided to be stubborn and try anyway, despite the bad weather.
Afew hours later the storm did change direction, and I had to furiously pack my soaked things into my car as other campers' tents started to get blown away, sometimes while occupied. Fun!