As I left work to go get Nikki, I noticed a towering cumulus cloud developing toward downtown New Orleans.  It had a slight cyclonic (counterclockwise) twist and rotation to it, very unusual around this area.  It was isolated with only a few fair weather cumulus clouds anywhere else.  I wondered if it would ever develop at all since high pressure aloft had suppressed shower development for the last 15 days.  I got a lucky break at the vet.  No one else was ahead of me, so they took Nikki in right away.  The girls at the front desk had been very interested in my storm chasing.  As I kept looking at the cloud continuing to build, they made sure there was no delay in Nikki's treatment.  If only I had met a girl like one of these 35 or so years ago!!!  Nikki was ready to go in less than 10 minutes (sometimes I had to wait for over an hour).  I took her home as the cloud was now a developing and expanding thunderstorm.  I grabbed my equipment and headed for a different spot along the Industrial Canal since the view from the airport would have been too blocked by the trees in front.  I could see lightning zapping frequently as I rushed to get to a good spot and set up.  I only hoped that this would not be a typical daylight thunderstorm where the lightning is active for only 10 to 15 minutes or so.

Just after 6:10 pm I began taping the action.  Lightning struck frequently so that no matter where I would have aimed, I would have gotten great shots.  The storm's rain was just beyond downtown New Orleans toward the area known as the West Bank.  Lightning often struck outside of the rain area so that most shots were clean and crisp.  I was totally amazed at just how much lightning there was.  I had to keep constant watch on the sky above me.  Even though the storm was drifting very slowly southward away from me, it kept showing signs of developing back toward me.  The anvil was spreading back toward me as well.  I had fears that there would be strikes well away from the storm right where I was standing out in the open.  Fortunately, that never happened.

As time moved on the original storm died off as new towers of cumulus clouds built and developed thunderstorms to the left and right of the original storm.  This is a common summer occurrence in the New Orleans area.  The new thunderstorm cells develop in a chain next to the original storm along a line.  A weak sea breeze front had drifted slowly south from Lake Pontchartrain in the late afternoon that led to this type of development.  The sea breeze front helped to lift the air until the first storm finally developed along it where it was most favorable.  This is most often the hottest place, in the vicinity of downtown New Orleans.  Once the first storm formed, a chain reaction of new storm development continued along the line almost until dark.

I had to gradually adjust the view to the left as the original cell developed and shifted in that direction.  The 16 strikes in Part 1 above were generally 4 to 6 miles away facing SSW and then S, just beyond downtown New Orleans.  They all occurred between 6:10 and 6:35 pm.  I zoomed in only a small amount at the beginning, but later you can tell that I zoomed in more.  The exposure was reduced somewhat to make the background sky look darker and to make the lightning strikes look sharper.

Then there was a longer 15 minute interval before activity began again.  This time the most frequent strikes were in a bad view through power lines and poles.  After seeing several really nice strikes in that direction, I zoomed in quite a bit to minimize the clutter of the horizontal power lines.  I was just able to get the one zoomed in strike on the second row, Deception, at 7:10 pm.

Deception: 198070646.  Can you figure out why I call this spectacular shot "deception?"  Did the lightning strike the pole?

After later seeing what zooming in can do to improve lightning pictures when the storms are not too close, I began doing this more often.  In narrowing the view area left and right, one sacrifices some pictures that would have been gotten.  But when one gets a good strike, it becomes a fantastic shot.  It can be well worth the sacrifice to zoom in somewhat.

After Deception, I zoomed back out and shifted my aim back to the right to get the next two strikes on the third row a few minutes later.  After that I had to shift well to the left and got the shots on the last row above.  These were 6 miles away toward the SE.