Wavelight Master
I think when I look at my photographs from this day in my life I'll always remember the incredible journey it took to make this happen. Driving for five hours hoping that my satellite read is accurate. Arriving and seeing the wall of storm clouds miles high churning over my destination I had to double check the satellites before going into the backcountry. It was almost too perfect. The clouds were moving slowly towards the NE just barely cruising over my destination - a large open sky to the west in the direction of the setting sun.
Arriving and seeing a ranger as the last living/moving vehicle late in the evening I thought he must have noticed me but for whatever reason didn't stop to talk with me about the lightning storms that were clearly surrounding us. Perhaps he knew anyone stupid enough to be out here also knew the risks they were taking.
Hitting the backcountry everywhere I looked there was epic light, rainstorms, and lightning going off in the distance - foreboding. The wave was in my sights and sunset was fast approaching - I was alone out there. As I arrived, darkness flowed over me. That type of darkness that makes the hairs on your neck stand up. The type of darkness you never ever want on top of you. It started to pour.
This was the moment of truth. A moment filled with fear, but also determination. I always trek with a mylar umbrella
https://www.gossamergear.com/products/liteflex-hiking-chrome-umbrella, so I quickly waterproofed my gear and continued shooting. The problem with this location is when the storms are coming from the south there is a large mountain blocking your view. It was impossible to see if the winds had shifted.
After five to ten minutes of terrorizing fear the rain subsided and the light started getting weird. Everywhere. And by weird I mean I have unedited camera shots that include dark blue, green, orange, pink, yellow, purple, light rays, rainbows and if I post them people will think I "photoshoped" weird colors in... I was incredibly grateful to have two camera setups. I setup one up on the Wave, time lapsing in brackets, and set out to shoot with my second camera. I had no time, so everything was hand held - at higher ISO than I'd prefer and painfully slow shutter speeds, nevertheless almost all my shots came out sharp, and I was able to capture more amazing photographs in 30 minutes than the last 6-months of attempts. I'll probably be processing and re-releasing shots from this trip for years to come.
This is a westward view of the wave, one shot for the foreground and another for the sky. Shortly after this twilight would hit, and the lightning would begin flashing too close for comfort causing me to book out of there. Hindsight is 20/20 - the storms were far away and I should have stayed into the night. But when night came, the flashes looked like they were right on top of me.
