I went to my favorite spot to take pictures of the Denver skyline as I was looking to capture some photos of the city with the Colorado Rockies’ fireworks in the sky. I was all set to go and had my camera aimed at Coors Field with plenty of time to spare and even took a few test pictures to confirm I had the camera aimed at the right place. A few other spectators gathered near me to watch the fireworks. Looking behind me to the west I began to notice that the clouds were quickly thickening. The Channel 4 mobil weather truck parked a few feet from me and this certainly foreshadowed what was soon come.

 

 

Faint flashes of lighting soon became bright bursts of electric bolts. In a moment, I went from killing time until the Colorado Rockies game ended to frantically getting the camera set to capture a lightning bolt. I fired off as many photos as I could. Most of the lightning was cloud to cloud and at times appeared to be directly overhead. I did not take anytime to look to see what I was capturing. I just kept hitting the shutter button as many times as possible before the rain fell or the thunder chased me off. The rain did begin to fall, and my gut kept telling me the keep snapping photos while also telling me that standing out in the open during one of the craziest rock and roll shows that mother nature can produce was not a good idea. I just needed someone to play Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watch Tower for the perfect soundtrack to the storm.

 

 

 

 

While I had the shutter open a bolt hit in the distance behind the Four Seasons. I took a couple more photos like a fly fisherman on a Colorado rocky mountain stream who says it’s his last cast and ends up doing ten more.  I did not push my luck and grabbed my gear and headed for cover. I thought it was funny because there was a few other photographers and spectators there to see the Rockies’ fireworks, and as soon as I scampered for cover they all did too. . . I guess they thought I knew something they didn’t.

The storm moved off to the east just as fast as it had arrived and after a half hour it was safe to get set up to snap some pictures of the fireworks.

 

 

 

I suppose the ironic thing about Friday night was, I have gone down there a few time before to capture some lightning bolts with the Denver skyline in the frame. Those attempts were not fruitful. On Friday I went down there to get pictures of fireworks and I come back with some pretty cool lightning photos. . . go figure.