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Photography requires a great amount of patience. Nobody knows that better than Jay Fine. After more than 40 years as a photographer, he recently captured the images above.
On the evening of Sept. 22, Fine headed down to lower Manhattan's Battery Park, which has a nice view of the Statue of Liberty.
With his Nikon D300 and 60mm f2.8 lens in hand, the 58-year-old snapped more than 80 photos over two hours. He struck gold with the above photo around 8:45 p.m.
“I had been watching weather reports so I knew a storm was coming and it just seemed like a great opportunity," he told the U.K.'s Daily Mail. "It was pure luck really, a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
The photo alone was not lucky; New York has endured violent storms this fall. Just a few days earlier, a storm that spawned two tornadoes killed a woman in Queens, around eight miles from where this image was taken. Just last night a severe thunderstorm dropped hail on Brooklyn and delayed the New York Jets game against the Minnesota Vikings.
According to the National Parks Service, the copper-clad statue gets struck many times each year. Just how many is not known. Standing 305 feet, one inch tall, the conductive construction makes it a structure of choice for lightning strikes.
We've collected an impressive gallery of lightning photos for your viewing pleasure, which we hope you'll take a look at HERE.
UPDATE 10/13/2010 11:15am EST: Many of our readers have speculated over whether lightning is actually striking the statue, or possibly the water behind. When the post was written yesterday, there wasn't a clear answer. So in an attempt to put an end to the debate, we spoke directly with Mr. Fine himself, and he's just as curious as you are.
"I can't tell," he said. "I'll leave it up to the meteorologists and National Parks Service to make that call."
Leave a Comment:
He's fortunate in that kind of an impending storm that HE wasn't the one hit by lightening. But being a photog myself, I know the shot becomes all consuming and you forget the circumstances around you. It is a once in a lifetime shot. aquabumps.com has some amazing skies and beaches from down under, taken by a photog every day at the same time of day. Nature has some wonderful displays if we just remember to look once in a while !
As good as one photographer can get after 40 years! ....Awesome shot!
Shocking...
:p
i was struck by lightning once, it was shocking.
AMAZING! The shot of a lifetime - congratulations on being in the right place at the right time. Something all photographers dream of.
I guess this is payback for not lighting the Empire State Bldg. for Mother Theresa of Calcutta celebration. If you get the message.
Ah hello, If you really look it hit behind the statue.
This is AMAZING!
You'd think there would be an easier way to light her torch!
Wow! Very nice shot of the lightning behind the statue. A great shot indeed! :)
What a great re-election poster this would make for our savior Obama, "Well if I'm lying then may lightning strike...."
Nancy4366 and the rest of you only find negative, can't you just enjoy the beauty of the photo?
these photo are wonderful. people should stop criticizing the wording in story and just enjoy the beauty.
Electric LadyLand!
I love lightning in arizona and I myself have a lightning photo I am very proud of.
hi nice block im recomend to my freind for visit
I have made a conclusion on the lightning actually hitting the statue or not. I say it was NOT hit by lightning.
The reason of WHY I say that is for one thing, if it were struck by lightning, there would be electric bolts going around it (possibly). For a second thing, look CLOSELY to the WATER! It's lit up from underneath the surface; it is being lit up from the lightning striking it and producing electricity from in the water. If thats the case then it is being struck in the water not on the statue! If you disagree with me then I'm sorry about it, but if a scientist could agree with me ,and I'm just in ninth grade for the record, I make a pretty damn good teen look like a professor in ninth grade man! Comment on my comment and see if I agree with you even more from your perspectives.
Whether the lightning actually strikes the statue or not is irrelevant... he was talking to the Daily Mail so truth or fact isn't high on their agenda... still a great photo though and i'm sure the statue has adequate lighting protection... all you doubters posting comments go and take a better shot or shut up!