First Place: Man and Nature, Professional Category
This was my first year entering as a professional. I took first place. But to be honest, there was but one other entry in this category. If you don’t play, you don’t win! Still I think it was a strong photo, and an incredible moment to shoot.
Sensing an incoming storm, I went out to Lakeside at 3 in the morning and set up this shot after the storm had passed overhead. I took about ten exposures, in the other nine I illuminated the train tracks with a big flashlight. That technique was not such a great idea. It looked unnatural. Fortunately, this photo did not have the flashlight, and it was the one in which the lighting struck right down the center of the tracks. There was also a fire started on the promontory mountains on the left. The light on the tracks is an oncoming train.
