Specialty: snapping thunderstorms, been taking photos of lightning for 16 years
Place: just outside Pretoria, South Africa
The following is his masterpiece called Monumental Chaos:
I was on my way home from Pretoria when I saw a massive storm front brewing to the east. I quickly made my way to the Voortrekker Monument just outside Pretoria as I just had a feeling I would have a chance of being directly in the storm's path. Often the problem with lightning photography is that it starts raining before the storm is close enough to capture, and before I knew it the rain started pelting down so much so, that the monument completely disappeared from view and this forced me to quickly seek shelter in my vehicle. The rain started slowing down after a few minutes and I knew I had to dash back out of the vehicle as I knew it was by no means over. Then came the first of some big very and very close lightning strikes and in between wiping my lens I was constantly adjusting settings to cater for what may or may not come next. While I do own a lightning trigger, I seldom use it as I prefer full manual control over my exposures using only a cable release and this day was no different. Then came the moment of what I termed 'Monumental Chaos,' when three massive lightning strikes came tumbling down to earth within 15 seconds. I initially thought the closest strike was just too close and that it would have blown my exposure but when I brought it up on the LCD screen I must have been grinning from ear to ear. In nearly six years of storm photography this single image portrays, more than any other image I've taken - the sheer chaos and power of a lightning storm.
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