One thing all 199 previous entries in this countdown had in common was that the photos were all taken at some point in the past nine years on one of the two digital cameras I’ve owned. When I was a kid, I had a 35mm camera that I was occasionally allowed to have a roll of film for. The last time I ever used that camera was on Photo Night at Busch Stadium in 1995, where the Cardinals players came out on the field for fans to take close ups of prior to the game. I took my roll’s worth of player pictures… and then after the fourth inning of the game that evening, a typical summer thunderstorm moved through causing a rain delay. As I was waiting it out on the concourse with lightning crashing all around us, I decided to take the ultimate no-risk gamble….
If you remember film photography, you might recall there was a twilight zone near the end of each roll where you might be able to take a couple of extra pictures than what the packaging on the film says you’d be able to. The counter on my camera was one or two over the 24 slots I was guaranteed to have on the roll, so there was a chance there may be one more bullet left in the camera. I wandered up to the railing where I had a view outside the stadium and aimed for the skyline. I reflexively flinched when I saw the sky light up and hit the button. It turned out to be the last photo on the roll…
Another aspect of film photography that the digital age has made us all forget is the fact that we really had no idea what we captured until the prints were developed. And the package of prints that came back with this roll had lots of posing ballplayers, but no nighttime shot. Not that I was too surprised…
It was a year later, the following summer, when I was going through those pictures again and remembered trying to take the photo during the rain delay. I decided to take a peek at the negatives and noticed that the very last frame had a very vague discoloration like it could be a photo and most notably a very thin crack-shaped line of black going vertically down it. It seemed like there was something there, but the processors apparently skipped over it thinking it was just a blank image. I showed it to my Mom, and she took the negative to the Mecca where I’d start working two years later and left instructions to print the very last frame, regardless of whether there was actually anything there or not.
There was something there alright….
Photo taken: August 19, 1995
On July 18, 1996… eleven months after I’d taken it, I found out that in one try, with one shot, with the final photo I ever took with a film camera, that I had captured a bolt of lightning! It just happened to strike in the direction I was pointing, I just happened to hit the button at the right time, and somehow managed to keep the camera steady enough to get the bolt in crystal clear focus! I’ve taken many amazing photos that I’ve shared in this countdown that I am extremely proud of… but THIS is my ultimate once in a lifetime photo. The best photo I’ve ever taken and likely ever will take….
I hope you all enjoyed the look at the top end of my photo archive over the past six and a half months!!!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
That is soooooo cool. I have tried to get lightning also. It’s very difficult with a traditional camera. But I might try again with my phone since I can sry it on multiple shots by holding down the button.
But good job! Glad it got developed!
We had one of those home camcorders around that time and I’d tried almost every time a storm came through to get a video of lightning striking and always came up empty. That makes the fact that I got it on a snapshot even more incredible. Good luck with your phone!
Wow….most impressive and the best part was it was a surprise that you ever got to see it in a photo (yay for your Mom!) – I remember those “maybe there’s really more photo possibilities on this roll” thing though – usually at least two sometimes the bonus of three. I’ve never captured lightning though. Ever.
Pam
I would doubt most people have. I’ll bet I could stand outside in a storm with my digital camera and take a thousand pictures… only to end up with a thousand pictures of a dark sky. This photo is one of the luckiest things that’s ever happened to me…
That is by for the most cool photo and the story behind is awesome too!
I knew the negative had to be sent back to discover I had the lightning photo, but I had completely forgotten that almost a year had passed until I was rummaging through some old stuff during a power outage a couple weeks ago and found the original envelope the lightning print came back in, with the date on the receipt. I’m glad I took another look at it eventually!
What a stroke of luck!
For me, yes! For the poor possum on the other end of that bolt…..
Wow, the chances of getting that shot the way you did were probably less than your chances of getting struck by lightning. You really were lucky that day!
What a super lightning photo, and the way you found it on the film was amazing! So glad you did. It is so hard to catch a streak of lightning, but you did it! Wonderful! 🙂
It seems impossible. My digital cameras all have delays built in to them, so I’d never be able to capture a bolt with one of them. But that good old film camera reacted just as quick as I did! And I figure that had to be a pretty long flash… one of those bolts that just kind of lingers for a second longer than it should. Just a perfect set of circumstances that all came together…
What an electrifying discovery! Those gamble shots often are the best. ⚡️
The ballplayers would be miffed to know that none of them was the prize of my prints from that day…