Vancouver Thunderstorm

• 
  
  It was fireworks night in Vancouver in more ways than one. In addition to the usual English Bay competition, there was a pretty awesome thunderstorm with tons of lightning passing through downtown.
  
  We so rarely get them in Vancouver that they have always fascinated me ever since I was a kid. On this night I had to react quickly and I didn't have my tripod with me, or my umbrella for that matter!
  
  But hey, being able to go out and shoot in this kind of weather is one of the main reasons why we buy professional camera bodies, isn't it?
  
  View the film strip by scrolling below.
• 
  It's a long walk across the bridge, but who cares, the colours alone ended up being worth paying the price of getting soaked!
  
• 
  
• 
  
  
• 
  I wasn't lucky enough to capture one of the lightning strikes, but my lack of a wide angle lens didn't stop me from trying.
  
• 
  For obvious reasons, I couldn't really shoot for very long pointing up, but the orange lights against the purple sky had me trying to snag a couple of frames.
  
• 
  The colours in the wake of the storm just got better and better ...
  
• 
  and there was even a faint rainbow, starting near Science World ...
  
• 
  and ending near city hall
  
• 
  Once again, wet pavement + sunset = awesome colour!
  
• 
  I was soaked by this time, time to heading back towards downtown .
  
• 
  These colours are straight out of camera, in muted portrait mode no less. This is exactly how it looked out there tonight.
  
• 
  Yaletown condos silhouetted in orange
  
• 
  Some passerby had umbrellas, but most of the crazies out on the bridge were soaked.
  It was kind of a warm rain, like you would get in a tropical place so it didn't bother me too much.
  
• 
  Remnants of a bridge party it would seem ...
  
• 
  Shifting from orange to pink now ...
  
• 
  Hiding at the bus stop, letting my gear dry and
  snagging more of the colourful wet pavement.
  
• 
  Pink shifting to purple now ...
  
• 
  Liking the colour balance of the bus lights against the sky.
  
• 
  Free advertising for AmiChi
• 
  Purple fading away now ...