This is another personal favorite from 2009. I was on my way to meet a buddy at Hooters in NYC coming in from a photo shoot in Connecticut. I was stuck at a light about 2 blocks away, and in NYC, that’s pretty much a traffic jam anywhere else.

Anyway, as I crept up, I saw a crowd forming maybe 3 car lenghts, and they were all taking photos. When I finally crawled my way around them, I saw this beautiful formation of clouds, which I later learned was Mammatus. The sun was setting also, so it gave this nice orange hue to it.

I had my camera packed, no lens attached. Luckily it was in the front passenger seat, so I quickly opened my bag, grabbed my D700 body, and screwed in my Nikkor 24mm. I quickly set my camera to what may be a good exporsure, metered real quickly, I was off by +1 stop, so I quickly adjust, and snapped off a few frames. I re-set to -1.5 stops and fired a few more.

When I finally got to my destination, I quickly reviewed my shots, and was satisfied with them. Later on, in Lightroom, the best shot turned out to be the very first frame I took.

This was one of those moments where your experience just really kicks in. I had no time really to get a shot off properly, as just after firing my first set of shots, the light turned green, and soon there after we were moving. I came walked back after I parked my car, but the sun already set too low, and the colours were not as vivid as it was no more than 5 minutes prior.

Nikon D700
Nikkor 24mm