after each photo excursion, i come home and copy all of the digital files (if i’m using my digital cameras vs. my film cameras) to the computer. i may give them a quick rating: 5 means this looks excellent and is potentially portfolio-worthy, 4 means this is very good and i like it a lot, 3 means i think there’s something here and with the right editing, it could be good. then i leave them alone for a week or two in order to dissipate any emotional attachment i may have to the actual trip itself. this allows me to truly discover the images that are good and which may not be, and i’ll often adjust the ratings once i’ve come back after a while.

sometimes after some time, i’ll stumble on a previously 3-rated image and finally see what the end image should be. sometimes i’ll just begin doing very general processing on an image and the final image then appears in my mind. it was this second experience that occurred in the creation of this image.

this is a fairly well-photographed location within the united states. it is not indeed lightning, but as i began making the general improvements to the image, i “saw” the lightning and the final image then appeared in my head. i’ve since showed the image a few trusted friends who’ve loved it, as well as entering it into a juried competition that’s been on my bucket list - where it was selected to be part of the exhibit.

one of my photographic mentors, David duChemin, often talks of never deleting images. i don’t fully take his advice as there are some images that are such complete garbage when viewing them on a computer that i wonder what on earth i was thinking upon photographing it. but then there are the image such as lightning strike, that just need to steep long enough in our minds and perhaps on our computers, until they can reveal themselves for the wonderous art they can be.