Mother Nature’s April Fools Joke

A Philadelphia Sunset Adventure

WAIT, let’s go back in time first.  I was going through this set of photos from Friday, April 1st I realized that by posting one photo at a time, I couldn’t convey the story of how this unfolded.  It’s been around a month since I’ve seen a decent sunset.  I recently drove for 3 hours round trip for a possible shot, to only not even take my camera out of the bag.  There was a storm front rolling through locally, and I had played with the idea of setting up somewhere to catch some lightning.  Then when I found out that fellow photographers Dante Fratto and Raymond Skwire were headed out to the waterfront, I hopped in my car and joined them.  There was potential, as I drove towards Philadelphia lightning bolts popped off here and there.

When I pulled up to the Camden waterfront, I was greeted by gray but textured skies.  Not exactly photogenic, but it gave me time to set up and watch things build up and hit us.  And hit us it did.  A heavy squall overtook our location, and I stayed out as long as I could in the rain.  The wind picked up, and the rain started coming in at an angle and was hitting my lens.

In hopes of catching a lightning bolt or two I stayed out, but there was really only wind and rain.  Enough was enough, time to pack up and wait for a while to see if anything else happen after is passes.

The rain wasn’t bad enough to run and hide inside of the cars, so the three of us put our gear in the back of the car and wait it out and talk.  But even that didn’t last so we had to duck inside for a bit.  The rain stopped, JUST in time for the sunset.

Now we’re talking!  Back to some great cloud cover, and the slightest hints of yellow and orange behind center city.  I would have been content with shooting these clouds.  But wait, there’s more.

This was it.  Unexpected, but a sorely missed and welcome sight.  It brings a smile to my face to witness nature like this.

Quite a drastic change from my arrival an hour previous to this.  What had started out to be a let down, turned out to be great.  The joke was on us.  April Fools indeed.

I hope you enjoyed this quick adventure!  And feel free to share. You can use the social media buttons at the top of this post.

-JFG