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All kinds of fireworks are great

My Nikkel’s Worth column

Weyburn residents were able to enjoy a fireworks show to celebrate Canada Day, even though most everything else was cancelled by the City due to COVID-19 restrictions.

There were a lot of cars out to watch the show, which didn’t violate the restrictions, because each group of friends or household groups were in their cars and the cars were physically distanced from each other.

The fireworks were pretty good, and from where I was set up to take photos of them, there were lots of cheers and applause after the finale, which was admittedly fairly dramatic with the colourful explosions of light in the sky.

Not to be outdone, however, God sent along His own fireworks show not two nights later, with a wild sort of thunderstorm that brought intense lightning, heavy rainfall and strong winds.

The lightning was busy enough that I was able to go out and photograph them as the storm approached the city, and I was able to get a fairly good selection of lightning shots.

The power and span of the thunderstorm far out-matched any man-made fireworks show, you may be sure, and it was a large storm so the flashes of lightning could literally be seen all around me prior to its arrival.

I was in the car and back in the city when the heavy rain arrived, and that was downright nerve-wracking.

I have a colleague who is scared to death of thunderstorms, and I’m not sure if she was in the city at the time, but if she was, this storm would have been extremely unsettling for her.

I recall last summer she had asked me once if I was afraid of getting hit by one of these lightning bolts, and said I was crazy to be going out there to watch these storms.

Maybe I am a bit crazy, but I’m a careful sort of crazy — I love watching thunderstorms, but I watch them as the storm is approaching when they’re miles (kilometres) away.

There have been one or two occasions when the lightning started getting a little bit close, and this happened on Friday evening. Most of the active lightning was a fair distance away, but then there was this lightning that spider-webbed across the sky, including right over my head.

I decided that was close enough and packed up my camera and left — and good thing too, because the rain started soon after, and it got really heavy once that part of the storm arrived.

The thing about lightning bolts is they carry an incredible amount of power and strength, and they are one-of-a-kind unique creations. I photograph them to capture that singular appearance and the beauty of the power on display in the skies. It can be hit and miss, because you really can’t tell where or when they will appear, but it’s immensely satisfying when you can get a great photo.