After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own.  I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week.  No recycling.  I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots.  Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.

The high mountains of Colorado are a thunderstorm nursery.  Like the laboratory of a mad scientist, elements are combined and incubated until a monster is born.  In a routine that plays itself out almost every summer day, the monster – lurching along at first – gathers its strength and glides like a shadow out onto the plains.  Demonstrating domination over the land with lightning bolts, thunder, darkness, wind, rain, and hail.

We were fortunate to be observing this monster from a distance last Saturday.  Had we been a couple of miles further south, our enjoyable day together hiking Mt. Bierstadt would have been remembered for much different reasons.  This storm went on to rip the roofs off houses, snap power poles, and destroy the canopy over the pumps at a gas station.

Frankenstorm
f/9, 55mm, 1/400 @ 100 ISO