Picture Notes

It’s nice to be in Florida and be reminded of all the good times I’ve had here. I think it’s the perfect weather of April and the open sky and the sea that brings it all back. This photograph is a great example of what I like about Florida. It’s people experiencing a part of Florida they may never see, although this is an artificial environment created by scientists and elected officials and people who see Florida as a way to make a living. I’m in the heart of of the City of Tampa which has Tampa Bay stretching out 30 miles to south until it reaches the open Gulf of Mexico. Tampa Bay used to be so full of fish that those who saw the area suspected you could walk across Tampa Bay on the backs of the fish. This aquarium was created and the water being used here doesn’t come from Tampa Bay but off-shore, in the deep Gulf of Mexico. It’s all good though and I’m sure most visitors don’t bother to snorkel or dive to see a reef and the diverse life that’s hidden from view. And now they can experience another alien world and not get wet or tired.

Thunder storm in Florida with lightning

Was I in danger? The air was electrified and as I stood on the beach with a camera on a metal tripod I could only guess at what was going to come out of the night and what this photograph would do for my photography business. This image was made in 1976 on Kodachrome film and it has sold all over the world and has been used in hundreds of publications and advertisements.

For the first ten years of it’s life I was using it for self promotions and sending it out to magazines and I had a few sales. Then I put it in a stock photography collection and it was licensed for one time use many times.

The stock agency, Southern Stock in Ft. Lauderdale was sold to Index Stock in the late 90s and the image went to New York. Of the hundreds of images in my stock files this was the sales leader. This image sold every month and was used in many different kinds of publications. Last year I left that stock house and decided to use the internet to market stock photography and the image is now sold royalty free on istockphoto.com.

For a few dollars you can buy this and use it royalty free. Good lightning photographs seem to be used by everyone, they are primordial energy that’s uncontrollable.

This is still one of my favorite 100 photographs because of what it is, not because of the sales history.