The photo Local Monsoon, by Jim Burkstrand, placed third.
The Photo Club of Quail Creek (PCQC) continued with its monthly members’ contest, with July having the topic of “bad weather.” Each club member could enter up to three photos taken in the last year. This subject was a more difficult one for the members and drew only 16 entries. All the photos can be seen on our Flickr site tinyurl.com/2pw35thy.
Jeff Krueger won first place with his photo Summer Lightning. Jeff commented, “In years past, I used to wander around the undeveloped land in QC on the east side of the community when a good lightning storm came through. With that area developed, for the most part, I got away from shooting lightning. When I did, I would use a relatively low shutter speed and a lightning trigger on the camera. Last year, although our monsoon season was more of a “none-soon” season, there were a couple of good opportunities. I always carry an older camera in the Jeep and a tripod. This shot was a lucky one, as I had just found an interesting spot to the east as I was driving and set up the camera on the tripod, no lightning trigger, and waited. I used a shutter speed of 1/100 second at f/5.6, as I didn’t need much depth of field. My ISO setting was 200. This shot happened just as I hit the shutter button. A case of the right place at the right time.” Jeff used a Canon 5D Mark III.
Steve Piepmeier took second place with his photo Monsoon Lightning Strike. Steve commented, “Monsoon season is always a favorite time of year. The Sonoran Desert wakes up, and the study of thunderheads with lightning is a challenge. The other evening at a gorgeous sunset, I happened to be in synchronicity with the lightning time. This monthly contest was called “Bad Weather,” but I feel it is a blessing!” Steve used his Panasonic DC-ZS200.
The photo Local Monsoon, by Jim Burkstrand, placed third. Jim said, “This shot was taken during the monsoon last year. I had set up in my backyard with my tripod and lightning detector. I had set my Canon 90D camera at f/22, as it was in the afternoon and fairly bright and I needed a small aperture in order to set my shutter speed at 0.5 sec. This monsoon storm formed in the southeast, the shape was classic, and it started to rain. Soon I was able to capture this shot with two distinct cloud-to-ground bolts.”
The Photography Club of Quail Creek has a monthly photo contest for its members and schedules numerous photo field trips for members throughout the year. Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Kino Conference Center, Mesquite Room. Room venue could vary each month. Consult the club’s constantly updated website www.pcqc.org, as well as the weekday HOA What’s Happening, for additional information.