US HIGHWAY 66
YUKON, OKLAHOMA All of the above photos were taken from the intersection
of Briarwood and US 66, the "Mother Road" in Yukon, Oklahoma. For 10 years, I lived four blocks from where these photos were taken. When I was home and the light looked interesting, I would grab my camera and tripod and
head for this intersection. Taking photos of lightning at night is very easy to do. Put your camera on a tripod or bean bag, set the shutter on bulb, open the shutter with a
cable release and leave it open until lightning stirkes. Photographing lightning during the daytime is a more difficult matter. You have to be very quick on the shutter release
the moment you see the first pulse. If you are fortunate (and quick enough) the second pulse will be more dramatic than the first and you will capture it on film. It was late dusk when the top photo was taken, and darker to the
eye than the photo would indicate. The street lights, and the sign on the will had come on. The shutter speed was long as indicated by the long light trails from the moving cars, and the traffic lights in the distance (too small to
see in this photo, have cycled all the way through yellow, red and blue. I am guessing the shutter was open for 30 seconds or longer. You can't see it in this small internet reproduction but a large print reveals lots of little
feeder bolts coming down in addition to the large forked double bolt. My family and I were eating at Braum's on the corner of Briarwood and US 66. It had been raining. As we ate
the sun broke out of the clouds and turned the streets into liquid gold. I rushed outside and took the middle photo from near the Braum's parking lot. If you are in Yukon, stop at Braum's and have a sandwich or ice
cream cone.The bottom photo was one of a series of photos I was working on for the Yukon Review back when I took photos for the local newspaper. One of the photos in this series ended up in color on the front page of the Yukon
Review on July 4, 1990. A larger version of the top two photos
Yukon Oklahoma prints can be purchased at JimDoty.zenfolio.com
June 26, 2000
Updated March 9, 2010
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