Red Sprite over Storm-Battered Lone Tree

  Red Sprites are huge breakdowns in the atmosphere above strong lightning strikes. They form as gases are torn apart and release photons in a transient electric field high in the atmosphere. The form of their breakdown- the intricate shapes and branching- remains a mystery to this day. The complex physics involved is something that ongoing studies focus on, but to me, they are as beautiful and chaotic as the branches of a tree. 

  That night, I was setting up to shoot sprites over a large storm system in Missouri. I had an idea of an area to shoot from, and picked off a map of an area I wasn't familiar with to scout. It was an obvious creek bed running through an otherwise featureless prairie. I knew that areas like this could hold an interesting foreground or two, but I'd need to see on the ground. As I got closer to the spot, my heart raced. In the fading light, I could clearly see several lone trees along the creek, all of which would be at the perfect distance to act as a foreground for my shoot.  This tree was one of my favorites of the group being wind-beaten with tonnes of character.

  It took a long time for storms to get going, but in one amazing moment around 1am, a beautifully complex sprite fired right in the frame. My forecasting and angles had worked out and this fleeting moment in nature had been captured forever. 

  About my photography: All my images are real and are usually single shots. I don't swap skies or move objects around. This is a real scene. I use post-processing products to develop the shots afterward and various denoise softwares. Real nature, rare nature.

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