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Waiting for a lucky strike

Geoff Helisma | Chasing images is a relatively new pastime for Peter Johnson. Advancing years mean that pursuing a life-long passion to be among the waves can become too physically demanding. What can a man do to replace that passion? “Yes, I do chase storms,” says Peter, “I’ve got to get the adrenaline rush I used to get from surfing somehow.” Just like looking for the best wave, capturing unique and beautiful images is a game of chance and waiting. “I was awoken from my slumber by my son, saying: ‘Have you seen the BOM [bureau of meteorology] radar? There is an electrical storm out to sea.’ I grabbed my cameras and tripod and headed to main beach, Iluka [on Wednesday May 30]. “Unfortunately, most of the strikes were behind some interesting cloud structures. I set my Nikon D750 on ISO320 at f6.3, with a 25 sec exposure and waited, hoping for a strike to penetrate to clear sky. “Fortunately, after an hour I caught a few images.”