A Desert Storm at Night




desert storm book cover

The Sonoran Desert is never more alive than during summer thunderstorms, especially at night. The rain comes down in sheets, the thunder booms, and the lightning lights up the desert, casting a glow on giant saguaros, who appear like lost souls from another world. I tried to capture the essense of these impressive natural events by using moving light at night. This seemed to capture the "electrically charged" nature of desert thunderstorms. The five triptichs follow a thunderstorm from its initial rumblings, to its ferocious climax, and finally to its subdued ending.

Production notes: All the images below were produced by panning, and sometimes shaking, my camera past lights at night. My equipment was decidedly low tech: a simple point-and-shoot digital camera and a flashlight (to make sure I didn't step on any rattlesnakes or back into a cactus). The images were not manipulated in PhotoShop or any other graphics program.

desert storm B1 T R I P T Y C H  O N E   Distant lightning and thunder...

desert storm B1 T R I P T Y C H  T W O   The gathering storm...

desert storm B1 T R I P T Y C H  T H R E E   The tempest...

desert storm B1 T R I P T Y C H  F O U R   Wind and rain...

desert storm B1 T R I P T Y C H  F I V E   The storm abates...

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