An age old Saguaro endures another Arizona monsoon and lightning storm as Four Peaks looks on
The lightning is in north Scottsdale beyond Fountain Hills. Monsoon season in Arizona generally brings many opportunities to catch fun lightning storms as background for an awesome desert environment. I think I hiked a couple of miles from Usery Pass rd before I found a group of Saguaro that would work for the shot I had in mind. Cactus and desert were lit by light-painting with a flashlight during numerous long exposures - then compositing the best exposures together to create the final image.
Caught a shot of Red Mountain getting a double whammy one night in 2018 as one of our awesome Arizona monsoon storms passed through. A big challenge with lightning photography is that it generally comes with rain, and sometimes a lot of it. If your lucky, the cell is more localized and you can shoot from just outside the rain area. One way or another, your likely to encounter some heavy rain and you have to be prepared if you want to to keep your equipment dry. Most of my lightning shots are composites of multiple exposures from on position - but these two bolts happened close enough together that they were both in the same exposure. Love shooting lightning - like so many aspects of photography; you never know what your going to get.
