If you see a penny PICK IT UP! – lightning storm, Dunsborough

I am not a superstitious person. At least I try not to be. I even try to fight superstition with superstition by thinking that if I knowingly walk under a ladder that it will actually bring me good luck rather than bad luck. Take that superstition!

On the morning of the second day of my trip down south I was wandering some sand dunes looking for possible photo opportunities when I stumbled upon a 2 dollar coin. It sat there staring at me and I couldn’t help but pick it up and think to myself ‘see a penny pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck!’. It is hard to ignore superstition in instances like these where the supposed outcome is actually beneficial.

After pocketing the coin I continued on about my day, scouting locations and keeping a keen eye on the weather. Up until this point the skies were blue and the light was harsh, (very uninspiring from a photography point of view) but over the coarse of the next hour or two clouds began to form on the horizon. As the clouds rolled in over the ocean things were starting to look good. There was a nice combination of low and high cloud with plenty of breathing room in between. The combination that often results in a spectacular sunset. As the sun finally began to approach the horizon and draw an end to the day things were looking really good. I scouted a location and composition I thought could make the most of the sunset  and waited for the light show to unfold (see image in my previous post). After the light show died down I headed into Dunsborough got myself a feed and a couple of drinks and called it a day.

After a restless couple of hours sleep in the van I heard the unmistakable sound of rumbling thunder. I took a quick peek outside and could see lightning flashes over the ocean to the north-east and noticed the storm was headed in a easterly direction. With a quick time check (2:00am) I decided to head straight to Quindalup Boat Ramp in hope of capturing some lightning images before the storm passed. On arrival at the location I was stunned to see that the storm was currently straight out in front of the Jetty, exactly what I was hoping for. With the storm moving fast I quickly set up, set my exposure for 120 seconds, f8 iso100 and started shooting. I managed to only fire off 2 exposures before the storm had moved to the right of frame. By the end of the third exposure the storm had moved out of frame and the number of strikes dramatically decreased. The image you see here is from the second exposure.

Now it was only at this point that I remembered about the whole 2 dollar coin incident. I hadn’t thought of it from the time of picking it up until just after capturing this image. Did the great clouds and spectacular sunset occur because I picked up a 2 dollar coin? Not a chance! I had observed the weather radar before heading to the Yallingup / Dunsborough area and was expecting conditions to be favourable. I couldn’t help but think however after being woken by thunder, immediately heading straight to this location and immediately setting up and firing off a couple of shots that I could have luck on my side. Is it likely, probably not, but who knows!

Quindalup Jetty / Boat Ramp – Dunsborough, Western Australia

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February 17, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Australia, boat ramp, Dunsborough, lightning, luke austin, perth, quindalup, south west, storm, Western Australia, Yallingup | 11 Comments