My Shot(s) of the Day – Taos Lightning – July 2, 2014

Last night, Taos and surrounding areas were hit with a pretty intense storm between about 830pm and 1030pm.

It was a fabulous night for Taos lightning shots but I have to admit I was bothered just a bit that my 10-year old daughter was out in that storm without me!  She and her nature camp group were out for an overnighter and this was the first time she was out without me.  Being out there taking pictures probably made it all the worse because I could see where her group was and how the storm was impacting that spot. I can’t get too worried about her though.  Isabella is a really smart kid who has been out in some crazy storms before.  She knows what to do.  She also tends to be a very calm kid so I will bet money that the only worry about anything was with her father.  This guy.

I took these two shots from an overlook about 15 miles north of Taos near the village of Des Montes.  There is an acequia that runs right along a ridgeline and the view from the edge of the mumbling water is pretty spectacular looking north and northwest.  I used these ten steps to great lightning shots to get what I wanted.  The mountain in the distance to the northwest is San Antonio mountain just south of the Colorado border.

For most of the time the lightning was pretty distant and I couldnt’t hear any thunder.  Then, the storm swept up behind the Colombine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area and dropped down Taos Ski Valley….right on top of me.  Pretty quickly the thunder was roaring and I ran for the car from some surprisingly large hail.

Later, I went closer to town hoping to get pictures of the storm around Taos Mountain.  I thought I had some good Taos lightning shots but when I got home and put them up on the computer I found that I had misfocused in the dark and they were all junk.

Arg.

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