23 Baycity MI 1 August 2002

Date: 1 August 2002

Location: Baycity, MI

Summary: We arrived in Bay City approx 1800 CDT and unloaded 2 compartments of stone. A tornado watch was issued for central lower Michigan including the Saginaw River Valley. Storms formed earlier that day and crossed Lake Michigan arriving in the Saginaw/ Bay City area at approx 2100 CDT. This series of storms produced some of the best lightning I have ever witnessed.

The first 7 shots here are a consecutive series of one strike. This series was shot from atop the loop hopper for the unloading system.

Another spectacular bolt blazes across the sky.

Here is a bolt that resembles an octopus. It is a little blurry which really sucks because it is an awesome bolt. The wide angle lens that attaches to the VX-2000 camera that I use is a Century .55 lens, which is an excellent lens. The one MAJOR drawback to using this lens is that at night unless there is a lot of light it is very difficult to focus because the way it attaches to the body. Simply hitting "infinity" on the focus does not do the trick, you either must focus it manually or the easiest way is to use the auto focus, however in this shot it appears that it was focused on the boom ram instead of a distant object. Boohoo.............

Heading through Lafayette St. Bridge.