One night, I was awakened by the sound of distant thunder at about 3:30 AM. I was concerned that the rain might warp the deck boards I had delivered the day before, so I got out of bed and covered them with a tarp. While I was outside, I noticed that it wasn't raining where I was but there was quite a light show over Powell River across Malaspina Strait. I set my camera up and tried to capture some of the lighting across the water. This remarkable image of chain lightening over Malaspina Strait was taken at 4:44 AM using a 30-second exposure. There was a massively bright flash during the exposure, and I thought, “I hope I got that one.” People ask me if the colours are authentic. They are – lightning flashes happen so quickly that all we see is a white flash, which is so bright that it overwhelms any colour that might be present. However, like a neon light, the lightning bolt ionizes the gases that make up our air, producing a fantastic spectrum of oranges, reds and purples. The camera sensor sees these colours when all our eyes see is white. Most of the colour you see in this picture comes from ionized nitrogen gas – not surprising considering that nitrogen makes up 78% of the air we breathe.
One night, I was awakened by the sound of distant thunder at about 3:30 AM. I was concerned that the rain might warp the deck boards I had delivered the day before, so I got out of bed and covered them with a tarp. While I was outside, I noticed that it wasn't raining where I was but there was quite a light show over Powell River across Malaspina Strait. I set my camera up and tried to capture some of the lighting across the water. This remarkable image of chain lightening over Malaspina Strait was taken at 4:44 AM using a 30-second exposure. There was a massively bright flash during the exposure, and I thought, “I hope I got that one.” People ask me if the colours are authentic. They are – lightning flashes happen so quickly that all we see is a white flash, which is so bright that it overwhelms any colour that might be present. However, like a neon light, the lightning bolt ionizes the gases that make up our air, producing a fantastic spectrum of oranges, reds and purples. The camera sensor sees these colours when all our eyes see is white. Most of the colour you see in this picture comes from ionized nitrogen gas – not surprising considering that nitrogen makes up 78% of the air we breathe.
