Thu, 11 Jul 2013 08:06:49 -0600
Day 0, July 10. Departure from Dodge and first lightning images of the trip near Trementina, NM | | I left Dodge City for my 2-and-a-half week vacation and North American
Monsoon shoot early in the afternoon on July 10. My route was southwest on
Highway 54 down to Tucumcari and west on I-40. I was not planning on
shooting today, but it was certainly a possibility as storms were expected
to form over the higher terrain of central and northern New Mexico. I was
watching a cluster of storms on radar near Las Vegas, NM and figured I
might have an opportunity to photograph lightning from these if I ventured
off I-40 about 40 or 50 miles. That is what I did. I went north on state
route 129, then followed route 104 up to the Trementina area. The cluster
of storms drifted southward, and I photographed lightning for a couple
hours in this area. The best location I shot from was along an east-west
section of highway 104 southwest of the Conchas Lake State Park where I set
up the tripod along the highway and photographed lightning looking down the
road. I was able to do this because of the sparse traffic on this road. I
had one car every 15 or 20 minutes on average down this road. At around
sunset, these storms slowly dissolved, and I made my way toward Albuquerque
then south to Socorro. New storms formed after dark in the area between
Albuquerque and Socorro providing for a nice show of vivid lightning along
the way. I did stop once to photograph, but I didnt get much from this as
I was more focused on getting to the motel for the night after the long
drive.
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