During the weekend of July 2, the local art group I am with participated in the annual Lakeside Arts and Music Festival located at Nelson Park, Decatur Illinois. This event is a roll of the dice in that sometimes we do well and others not as much. This year the stifling heat kept many people inside so turnout was down. The heat index for Saturday topped out at 108 and it was much hotter in our tent though I do not know by how much nor really want to.
Later that evening after closing down, we headed to the annual fireworks show at Arthur Illinois. This is by far one of the greatest displays in all of downstate Illinois. A frontal boundary was slowly drifting across the region and my concern was that rain chances might delay the start. Per the radar grab and corresponding sunset CU, there was no way we could anticipate what would happen next.
Right at 9:30 as the fireworks started, a cell went up to the SW and began spitting out intense cloud to ground lightning. It skirted the site to the immediate S thus we were treated to an unbelievable show. I was set up to shoot continuous and was able to capture many of the discharges. Besides what is here, I also managed a few shots with lightning out of frame but still illuminating the scene. The purpose was to assemble stills as a DSLR time lapse which can be seen HERE. The first image has gone somewhat viral for I passed it along to ILX who showcased it on their site and from there, found it's way on to a few television networks around the state. For as popular as the Arthur festival is, I am grateful to have been able to document and share this remarkable experience. I am sure others caught better images, these days there is almost always someone who does.
Back at the art festival on Sunday, the heat was a little less intense due to the frontal passage but crowds were still down. A few macro opportunities presented themselves including the baby jumping spider which is a new one for me.
Later that evening right as everyone was disassembling, a storm went up over the lake and upon collapse, pushed out a ridiculously strong downburst. In a matter of minutes, tents were trying to go airborne and everyone was frantically trying to secure their wares. We managed to stay ahead of the storm and our stuff was ok but others weren't so lucky. Once the gust front passed, heavy rain fell so the task for those who were still struggling to pack up became even more dire. We couldn't have asked for a more fitting end to what was a less than stellar event. Better luck next year or at least we can only hope...
On Monday the 4th, Ava and I headed back down to Lake Decatur for our local fireworks display. What made this event interesting for me is that the International Space Station was scheduled to rise from the W at 9:10 PM and depart to the S. The show was set to commence at 9:00 PM which meant a chance of scoring yet another rare opportunity. While waiting for the action to begin, a lone sky lantern drifted by high over the lake from E to W. A quick switch to the 300mm and another less frequent subject is in the box. The wiggle is natural as it spun and twisted along it's flight path for I used a cable release which is becoming a standard tool for me in everything I shoot.
Right on cue it happened though not as spectacular as I might prefer. Since it was twilight, I had to go with slower settings to compensate for daylight as well as for the fireworks. The International Space Station was at lower angle thus somewhat dim but the combination of ISO 200, F8, 15 seconds seemed to work out just fine. I sent this and two other images to Spaceweather.com thinking they would showcase this pairing on their home page but they did not. You can still see what is live on the site HERE.
Set up to shoot continuous for time lapse, I went away with 66 shots and could have bombed this post with dozens of images but will settle for one "regular" scene that I felt captured the moment best.
Taking all 66 shots and running them through the Star Trails program for fun, below is the entire show stacked into a single image! A DSLR time lapse video of the event can be seen HERE.
Ava vs. a light up mouth toy I picked up for her :)
Spending the first half the new week after the holiday editing material and just doing life, yet another opportunity would occur. Bouncing around on Thursday the 7th scoping out back roads with GPS, I would end up intercepting a strong storm producing interesting structure near Nokomis. Storms this day weren't expected to be much more than heavy rain producers so getting what I did was nothing short of dumb luck. A time lapse video of the storm can be seen HERE.
Very pleased with the following as it was from 6' away with the 300mm.
As everyone knows, history was made on Friday the 8th with the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. I was seven when the program began and can remember where I was in Steelton PA. She is five when it ended and so one day I hope this shot along with a few others from the event serve to inspire her just as I once was.
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