Keep a Camera Handy for the Unexpected Shot
As a fine art photographer I spend a lot of time researching and planning a shot — scouting a location, then timing a visit for when the light will be right. That approach works well, but sometimes the light shows up when you weren’t planning on shooting at all.
Driving home from a Sunday afternoon cookout with friends, I got reminded of the old rule: always bring a camera. The afternoon had been nothing special — hot, humid, blue sky, a few passing clouds. Not a day I was planning on shooting landscapes. But the camera was in the car, just in case.
On the drive home, things got interesting. A thunderstorm rolled through — heavy rain, high wind, plenty of thunder and lightning. As it passed to the east and the sun dropped in the west, the sky turned into some of the best colors I’ve ever seen. I got off at the next exit, pulled into the first parking lot I found, grabbed the camera, and ran for open ground away from the buildings.
It was far from an ideal spot for landscape photography, but I got a few frames off before the whole thing disappeared. Without the camera in the car, this photograph never happens. The whole show lasted maybe five minutes, and it’s still one of the more striking skies I’ve seen.