I was camping near Mt Shasta on Friday July 29th, when the McKinney fire started across the valley. We were planning on driving further north on I-5 the next day, so we watched the evacuation notices for signs they might close the road.

At 2am, the dog woke me up, and I got out of the tent to look at the sky. It glowed eerily red, and I set up my tripod. I enjoy shooting astro, so I know the settings for the Milky Way, but dark clouds with lightning were new to me. I took 40 shots at 15sec exposure each, and stitched them together with QuickTime for a timelapse. This 3 sec clip covers about 10 min of real time.

Pyrocumulus Lightning in McKinney Fire | I was camping near ? | Flickr

[jacamar]

I would like to nominate this photo

[RobA_Oz]

The still shown here doesn’t do justice to your video clip on Flickr.

I nominate this photo.

[keithamatz]

I would like to nominate this photo