|
|
Published:
Jul 23, 2003 - 10:20:02 AM MDT Wendy Miller / Independent
Newspapers
www.NewsZap.com (C)
allrights reserverd
|
|
Lightning energizes nature photographer
By Wendy Miller/Independent Newspapers
It was the one time Jacobo Insogna dared Mother Nature.
Lightning was striking all across the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale. Rain started to fall, heightening the risk factor.
The opportunity to capture frenzied bolts of energy over the bronze horses at WestWorld had eluded the freelance photographer for two long years, but on this rainy night, all the elements were in place to get the long-awaited shot.
"When I first saw the horses, they looked like lightning had hit and they were rearing," said Mr. Insogna, who goes by "Bo." "I waited and waited and one night it was right."
Grasping his 35mm Pentax camera with a 50mm lens, he traveled up Pima Road. This was before Highway 101 had opened through the area. There was no traffic so he was able to position himself in the middle of the street.
"It started to rain and here I was in the water with a metal tripod and the lightning is hitting 100 feet away," he said, "so I got the shot and got out."
Mr. Insogna is one of a handful of professional photographers who get paid for chasing lightning. He moved from Boulder, Colo. to Arizona in 1987, after a downturn in Colorado's economy put a bite on his horse photography business.
(C) 2003 Jacobo Insogna www.ArizonaLightning.com all right reserved
Sculpture by Snell JohnsonThe outdoorsman was lured here by the opportunity to photograph the Arabian horse market. However, he was quickly enamoured with the quick weather changes and spectacular night shows produced by lightning during monsoon season.
And there are plenty of evening lightning shows to view. Arizona is second in the nation for the number of lightning strikes recorded. Florida is number one.
From July to September-Arizona's monsoon season-photographers like Bo Insogna are in their glory capturing the bolts of white and yellow as they rip across the night skies. But Mr. Insogna also has seen the damage such high velocity beauty can produce.
"Rain can come in with such force that you get stuck and can't get out," he said. "Mother Nature is nothing to play with. With each storm, it seems I see someone in a car floating up to their windows in rain."
Danger comes not only from rain but also from the lightning itself.
"One time at Pinnacle Peak, the lightning shot sideways," Mr. Insogna remembered. "It's an eerie feeling when you're shooting and all the hairs on your body stand up. There's a smell, an odor as the static charge builds. You can tell something is going on but it's not a good thing, so you get out."
The beauty of northeast desert keeps the photographer coming back.
"North Scottsdale is very pretty, especially all the saguaros, and there is easy access to many of these places," he noted. Freeways, such as the 101, provide him with a bird's eye view of the higher elevations.
But it's the lightning that really energizes him.
"Sometimes the storms come in like a rocket," Mr. Insogna said. "The monsoon season comes in like clockwork every year, but the lightning is unpredictable. I've seen it go from the sky to the ground, horizontally across the sky, and in balls of fire.
"The lightning hits the highest points," he continued. "Sometimes the heat from the mountains seems to attract it; I've seen it jump between mountaintops. Other times it hovers over certain areas."
The dedicated photog has two choices when a lightning storm is sighted. He can position himself in a prime location and wait for the lightning to come to him. Or he can chase it.
"It depends on whether I'm trying to get a specific shot or if I'm doing some general lightning chasing," he said. "I try to have some locations set up ahead of time that would look good as backgrounds for lightning."
Sometimes he just sits back and admires the view.
"I've watched a storm just walk down the mountains," Mr. Insogna said. "I've seen the lightning light up the crevice of the mountains and illuminate incredible plants and animals."
But he also has tremendous respect for the power of a storm and takes precautions to protect his camera equipment-and his body-from harm.
"Safety is number one," he said. "Once you put yourself in the area of a lightning storm, you could be struck."
Mr. Insogna wears rubberized shoes because leather can conduct electricity from the lightning. Rain gear is a must to protect his camera from the rain. And he stays close to his vehicle.
"A car is always the safety zone," he said. "Stay inside until the storm rolls through. The rubber tires will protect you."
Typically, the monsoon season has officially begun by July 7. This year, lightning chasers like Bo Insogna are itching to press their camera trigger finger.
"I'm always looking for something spectacular," he said.
|
|
| Tips on Photographing Lightning |
|
|
| Photographer
James "Bo" Insogna has
spent many years photographing lightning over North Scottsdale
and other Valley locations. He shared the following tips on how
to capture the images on film.
Watch the weather. Be prepared and ready to go if a storm is moving toward your area.
|
|
|
Open Complete Web Site in a new window
