Walking With The Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4 - The Sequel: A Storm In An Eyecup
I tried to repeat the same walk last night as it had been a similarly nice day and the weather forecast looked pretty good, but this time I was taking the Nikon Z7 + 24-70 f/2.8S to see if the extra flexibility of the zoom really made a difference in this sort of scenario. It was certainly a lot more noticeable to carry on my sling strap than the comparatively weightless Fuji combo (in both case, the bulk of the weight being mostly the lens, or at least, that's how it seemed).
As I reached the canal, I noticed it was getting dark, very dark, in fact, high ISO dark! Black clouds were racing in from the South West, the wind was picking up and the air had taken on a viscous quality. A storm was brewing. Should I turn back? The forecast was still clear, so I decided to press on. As I walked along the canal I saw the thing I was dreading the most, a fork of lightning tear across the sky. This made me pick up speed, not wishing to get caught out in the thunderstorm and I briskly walked along the canal and left at the next viable exit onto Moss Lane as the lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled. Thunderously.
As I made my way up Moss Lane, the unmistakable pitter patter of spitting rain began to pick up. I was roughly a mile and a half from home without a jacket and it was starting to rain. About half way up Moss Lane it turned into a deluge, which persisted as I hastily trod along the next mile trying to shield the camera from the most of it. As the only viable shelter along the way was trees beside the road and the occasional metal bus shelter I pressed on, given they're generally not considered good places to be when lightning is in the air.
Eventually it stopped raining and I walked the last half mile in more settled conditions, arriving home somewhat soggy, but otherwise none the worse.
Given the conditions, I only took a handful of shots, including these two of the gathering storm.
Canal Mill and the Brewing Storm (not P.G. Tips sadly)
The air changed suddenly as I looked back at Canal Mill, from dull but clear, to viscous and hazy. Shortly after this shot was taken, I saw what appeared to be the leading edge of a shower race along the canal towards me, but turned out to just be thicker more turbulent air. A weird phenomenon I've never seen before. I did take a shot of it, but it didn't really come across on camera.
Storms Over The Temple
Lightning flashed to the left of the steeple a fraction of a second before I took this shot. No chance of catching such a thing without being extremely lucky given my lack of tripod and ND's. To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, "the sky bodes". I'm not sure what it bodes, it just bodes and that's never a good thing. Time to move on.
BTW thanks for everyone's concern about my health. It does seem to be one thing after another at the moment and after a lifetime of pretty solid health I'm not used to it. I'm not quite back to 100%, but I'm much better than I was at the beginning / middle of the week and at least I can swallow properly again without shooting pains in my shoulders(!). I expect to be completely back to what passes for normal by the end of the week the way things are progressing.