Monsoon Maelstrom
Order ID: GRCA-SR-Matted-Print-7900
Grand Canyon can experience intense lightning storms during the monsoon season between July and mid-September. On August 3rd, 2012, Sally and I found ourselves a short distance below the rim of the canyon as this storm approached. The lightning was over 10 miles away when we realized that a storm had developed behind us as well. Heading back to our truck meant moving up to the rim and exposing ourselves to the storm. With no good options, we elected to shelter below some massive boulders and overhanging rocks for almost 90 minutes. During this time I created this image which is a stack of 18 images shot back-to-back and merged in Photoshop (using a technique similar to creating star-trail photos) so that I could show the intensity of this storm. In total, I captured 48 lightning strikes in this image and it represents approximately 10 minutes of storm activity. 8x10 inch print matted to 11x14 inches.