28-JUN-2011
Okarche High
I am not a morning person. But, thunder will get me up to see what is going on. There's always a little bit of a weird feeling when you shoot lightning just after daybreak - especially on a weekday. You see all the traffic buzzing around you knowing that people are getting their day started, going to work. Then they see this bum on the side of the road with a camera and tripod and have to be thinking, "Doesn't this guy have a job?" Well, thank goodness I don't have regular hours. This image was captured while sitting on the west side of the new Okarche High School located on the west side of town. The strike about a mile away lighting up the side of the shiny new water hydrant.
29-JUN-2011
Shhh, People Are Sleeping
I love my neighbors... all have something good to offer. I was awaken this morning to the sound of thunder, and found my neighbor standing outside watching the show. He had just got home from wherever it was he was and was just a bit tipsy. His porch ended up being one of the best places to set up and observe lightning that was not too far away to our east. Trouble was, he felt the need to anticipate each thunder and would yell BOOM! as loud as he could. He was making more noise than the thunder. It didn't take long for a lot of neighboring house lights to come on and people stepping outside to see what all the noise was about. Once they realized who it was... they drifted back toward bed. Like a strange scene from "The Burbs".
29-JUN-2011
For The Love Of Water
Also during the early morning hours of the 29th, we were happy to see a decent amount of rain fall. It's always good to catch a nice CG not too far away, but what caught my attention in this image was the near curb to curb running water. We have been sitting way below normal for way too long and anything of the sort is a pleasant sight.
02-JUL-2011
Rocky
4:30 in the morning and I hear a bit of a rumble outside. There shouldn't be anything on radar, but I checked it out to make sure. There it was, a small cell located over my friends house. Rocky got some rain out of it as well as some close bangs. I was off far enough to capture one of my better shots of the season. I didn't have time to play around. By the time I got set up - this was the only discharge I saw. The settings were not spot on - but workable.
25-JUL-2011
Bessie
By 25 July, I was getting desperate for decent lightning and had decided to extend out of my comfort zone making it all the way to Clinton, OK. The lightning at times wasn't that bad... but as was typical of the season - extreme drought led to a lot of rather bland colors at foreground. This image was captured on the east side of Bessie.
25-JUL-2011
Corn
Again, also on the 25th - this was looking east toward Corn, OK. The strike itself wasn't all that impressive, but the view wasn't half bad. I think it would have been better with some nice green in the foreground - but that wasn't to be this July.
06-AUG-2011
Hefner "Pond"
There was a brief window of decent lightning on 6 August that gave me several different views to shoot. Storms were already ongoing when I left the office at 6 P.M. and I made my first stop on the east side of Lake Hefner. The drought situation was obvious in the image with the low lake level, and there were broad areas where it looked like you could walk without drowning.
06-AUG-2011
Evans Road
One of my favorite places to stop along Highway 3 is at Evans Road (about 5 miles southeast of Okarche). Once off the highway, you don't usually have to worry about traffic and there is a great view from south to west to northwest... looking over Okarche. Sunset was getting closer as ground to cloud strikes off of a distant tower flashed about every three minutes or so.
06-AUG-2011
Evans Road Glow
One of the last cloud to ground strikes of the evening seemed like a gentle one in front of the sunset to the west. A short five minute trip back to the house and I was in by dinner.
08-AUG-2011
Kingfisher/Canadian Counties Big Day
One of the better days of the year came on 8 August as storms formed about 45 miles northwest of Okarche and moved southeast. This first brilliant strike was somewhere between 100 and 200 yards away assuming I have a fix on the pumping unit at the end of the lease road. I first thought it might have been blown out - even at f/10.0 - but the processing worked out well. The glow near ground level was caused by blowing dust through the fields as winds were increasing to over 50 mph.
08-AUG-2011
Powerless
As the Kingfisher County storm raced southeastward - it produced a considerable amount of wind damage. We were in the first hours of an extended period without power when this shot was taken looking back toward Okarche. It was almost hard to believe that cloud to ground strikes were still being generated with weak echoes which had formed behind the main storms. I liked the colors and friendly conversation with a local farmer that couldn't believe that I was catching strikes on camera.
08-AUG-2011
When You Don't Have Any Power...
...at the house - what's to do but keep trying to pull a lightning shot out. We were only about a mile from town and could see clearly that it was still sitting in the dark. No reason to go back to a hot house, especially when a hot strike was still occurring every few minutes.
