I was rummaging through some old photos looking for pictures of relatives to post on Facebook when I happened upon this interesting image. It was taken in August 1972 with a Minolta SRT 101 using Kodachrome 64 film. We were in the midst of a great midwestern thunderstorm; the kind where the time between amazingly bright flashes of lightning and the window vibrating rumbles of thunder was down to only a second or two.
Thinking I might be able to photograph some lightning, I set up my camera on a tripod near the window of our third-floor apartment. Using a cable release, I tripped the shutter whenever a bright flash scared the daylights (nightlights?) out of me. It didn’t take much thought, it was all reflexes.
Despite the lightning-fast reflexes I had when I was 24, this was the only flash that I caught. I never tried to photograph lightning again. I’m not sure why, because I love those great storms, at least when I’m indoors. One time I was awake most of the night in a tent wondering if a similar storm was going to drop a tree or two on top of me.
Fortunately, that great old vincentpriceian building with the mansard roof still sits on the corner of East Gilman Street and North Pinckney Street, just 4 blocks from the Capital Building in Madison.
This is how it looks now from the ground level on a nice sunny day. The trees have grown a bit in 40+ years!
