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| Storm Clouds Over Great Falls Maryland |
The photo trip started with a trip to the Virginia side of the Great Falls gorge. I underestimated the amount of traffic travelling from my home in Timonium down to Great Falls. Considering we are talking about I-95 and the Capitol Beltway I should have planned better. But finally I made it and the photography began.
This was before the new superintendent took over and started enforcing the "nobody out on the rocks" policy. I had a great time getting up close to the falls. About 5:30pm I noticed it looked like storm clouds where moving in. I decided that I wanted to be on the Maryland side of the Falls hoping to see some nice sunset light on the incoming clouds. I hopped in the car and sped back into traffic.
I made it to the Maryland side parking lot just as it was getting dark from the storm clouds. The sun was about 45 minutes from setting. I jumped out of the car and grabbed my gear and headed for the Maryland overlook. I crossed over the C&O Canal by the old tavern. I could hear the occasional rumble of thunder off in the distance as I reached the boardwalk out to the overlook. I started walking faster hoping to get some pictures before the skies opened up. Eventually I reached the overlook and was greeted by these orange pink skies with real rough looking storm clouds. Now I could actually see the lightning off in the distance. Specifically there were several bolts that were visible just off the right hand side of the above image.
I chose to shoot the scene with a wide angle lens at 16mm. I set my shutter speed to 1 second hoping to get some movement in the clouds but it didn't work out quite right. And later I decided that I liked this image better than the longer exposure. I think the rough landscape meshed well with the harshness of the clouds. I love the orange pink sky color, it goes well with the natural color of the rocks. And the touch of fall colors just makes the boundary between sky and gorge pop.
The rain held up till after dark and I was already back in my car by that point. All in all the weather really was on my side that night. Sometimes you just get lucky with the weather.
