Picking up my watch, 4:51 AM. Nine minutes before my alarm is going to go off, so I crawl out of bed without waking Kristin, grab my camera, pet Chestnut who’s greeting me with a sleepy smile, and head outside under the cloudy, blue-yellow sky. In about 20 minutes sunrise will change the color of the clouds, but for now, Chestnut and I, walk around our campsite as the birds chase bugs. It’s quiet, but there is an audible noise from the river close-by.

The sunrise light creeping in behind the wall of clouds in the sky. Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

Lightning Storm On The Horizon

Looking across the river and toward the horizon, a storm is obviously brewing over the vast farmland surrounding us. The sky lights up, often, and the thunder rolls past us 20 seconds later, at first. With each flash and bang, the delay diminishes. The storm is moving towards us and to the north. I don’t think the storm will hit us, but I wanted to take every chance I could to create an image I just haven’t had the opportunity to photograph. A lightening bolt, frozen in the frame.

I had a few hunches on how to make this happen, so, I grabbed my tripod and set up.

My first time catching a bolt of lightening on camera. Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

How To Capture A Lightening Bolt In An Image

At first, I got really excited and sat there trying to time the clicking of the shutter with the lightening bolt, but I epically failed. So, with the tripod I set my camera up on interval mode, snapping images consistently with the framing I wanted, hoping to capture a bolt of lightening. 300 images later, still nothing. Feeling a bit defeated, I decided to focus up and change things around a little bit, meanwhile return to my first method to capture a lightening bolt frozen in an image.

Gear I Used To Get The Shot:

Camera Body: Sony A7r4
Lens: Tamron 28-70mm G2
Tripod: Peak Design Travel Tripod (to get the shot, I actually didn’t use a tripod)
Circular Polarizer

With my camera handheld and camera strap around my neck for added stability, I flipped out the LCD-monitor and looked down at it as if this was a waist-level camera. Pushing my finger halfway down, so the camera was pre-focused and set to high for burst mode, I waited for the sky to light up. Once any kind of light started, I held the shutter down. Spray and pray, some call it.

On my first go, I got what I wanted. And that was a good thing, because that was the last visible lightning bolt to cross my field of view this morning.

The mobile office. Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

Meetings On The Road Are A Reality I Can’t Avoid

After the photo fun was concluded, we packed the van and began down the road. We would need to stop soon, like within the next hour, because I had a business call. I know, I know. A business call on a road trip? Yes. This vanlife summer road trip is for work and I am still taking on other work projects. So, meetings on the road are a reality I can’t avoid. The cool part, I have a rad mobile office set up.

Starlink plugged in, my 400 watt Renogy solar set up charging in the full sun, Apple computer powered on, journal and pen in hand, I am ready to chat away.

Without boring you to tears, we chatted about potential video and photo projects that could be a good fit in the near future. Nothing too exciting, I mean, I didn’t even tell my Mom about it, but the meeting happened and follow-up email was sent.

Time to hit the road again!

Hi 👋 Idaho. Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

We Made It To Idaho

I’m not much of a fan of name calling, but when a welcome sign call me a -ho, I have to counter with, “Nah, you-da-ho”…

Did you laugh? I sure hope so. Well, now that the Dad joke is out of the way, yes, Kristin, Chestnut, and I have made the drive from South Lake Tahoe through Nevada, a corner of Oregon, and into Idaho. The land of potatoes. At least that is what their license plates say, “Famous Potatoes”. Sure, they farm potatoes, but what is really going on here Idaho? Are you all trying to downplay how cool your state is so tourism never comes to you? I wish I could be a fly on the wall when they had their marketing meeting because I assume it went something like this:

“Hey, the bosses over in D.C. said we need to write a slogan for our license plates. What should we say?”

“Um, we grow potatoes.”

“Really? No, that is a terrible idea.”

“Actually, you know, we make $1.4 billion from agriculture per year. That is like, 18% of our state’s GDP. If we focus on tourism, that is only 3% of our GDP. Let’s do it!”

“Okay, but can we change it to ‘Famous Potatoes’?”

“What’s famous about them?”

“Nothing really, we just grow a lot of them.”

“Sounds good. Send it to D.C.”

Hot springing in the summer is hot! Notice the chocolate milk color of the river? Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

Hot Spring and Chill

After two more hours on the road, we were winding along the muddy flow of the Payette River. I don’t know if this water is always muddy, because I saw a sign that warned, “Flash Flood Potential noon to 5pm” which made me think they were releasing water from a dam higher up. Regardless, the river was rushing and looked like the perfect combination of chocolate in milk.

As the evening closed in, we were ready to stop. Thankfully, not far away was a campground with a hot spring. Snagging a spot to camp at Pine Flat Hot Springs, Kristin and I headed down to the hot spring for a soak. About a quarter of a mile down a trail, a cascading waterfall flowed into a man-made pool perfect for soaking. This hot spring pool was one of the most stunning hot springs I have ever visited. Trust me, I have visited a lot, so this is saying something. Positioned higher on the hill, you get a view of the river and the noise does not drown out the conversation, so Kristin and I could chat.

However, if you are feeling daring, there is a pool down the river and up a moss covered slab of rocks to die for. I mean, this tub is like, chef’s kiss, top notch, romantic. Private and hard to find, this clean hot spring has a flowing waterfall of warm water, perfect for two. If you decided to stop here and visit this hot spring, bring a snack, maybe some candles, it is that kind of place.