How I Made It: A Stormy Night Downtown
The day before Memorial Day 2024, a storm blows over the north part of Kansas City, MO over the skyline of the city. The Symphony plays in front of 20,000 people on the hill of the World War I Memorial. Food trucks, fireworks, music, and lightning.
Lightning strikes behind the Kansas City Skyline during Celebration at The Station at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri (Parker Johnson/IONYOU Media)
The storm, rolling in, I knew I wanted to capture this photo. I adjusted my settings for the lowest ISO for a clean image, and lowered my shutter speed to have the bolt of lightning look bright and full. After taking over 600 raw photos, this was the one I chose. This has been a photo on my dream shot list for a while after seeing my first beautifully made image of lightning over Badlands National Park by Fred Wasmer. The lead-up of similarly beautiful images prior to this photo were just as stunning.
I have a saying, “You are the only person that has that image. No one else has that same photo from the same location, same settings, lens, or camera.” No matter if you are the only photographer in sight, or alongside 200 other similarly talented photographers, you will be the only person that created your image.
Settings:
Camera - lens: Canon R6 Mk2 - Canon 16-35mm f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/13
Apature: f/2.8
ISO: 320