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Chicago lightning chase #7, wind turbines
Another run to Chicago for what turned out to be yet another lightning bust for this thunderstorm-challenged city. I came away with one distant CG behind the Sears Tower and 311 South Wacker.
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On the way home, a second line of storms moved across central Illinois toward my I-55 travel route. Some bolts were beginning to show themselves by the time I reached Lexington, and off to the southeast I could see the flashing red lights from one of the many wind farms that dot the state. A wind turbine+lightning shot has been on my 'wish list' for a while, so I decided to give it a try. The wind farm was much farther off of the interstate than it first appeared, and it ended up taking me a good 25 minutes to finally reach them and get set up. Thankfully, the storms kept producing CGs, allowing me to check another photo goal off of the 'lifetime list'.
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Soon, the gust front and a monster shelf cloud from the collapsing storms to the west arrived. I turned up the ISO to 1600 and sacrificed a blown-out CG in order to capture the impressive structure:
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The wind turbine venture put me in line to pass through Decatur, IL on the way home, so I stopped in to visit with fellow observer/photographer/blogger Paul Hadfield. I finally arrived back home just after 7AM.
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