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Description
Oh, and if you're wondering, it is a nuke*.

Nikon D50 + 18-55 kit @ 25mm

4+ min exposure, PSCS3 Curves.

Location: Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Australia.
Lat: 28° 5' 23.76" S
Lon: 153° 27' 27.90" E

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* No, not really, but it does look pretty convincing.

I should mention what was actually going on in the photo. What you see in the photo is two different stormclouds. The closer and brighter one is easily identifiable as such, and is a pretty common sight in Australian summers. However, the smaller and more distant orange one is quite unusual. It was cloud lightning, and it was pulsing yellow once every few seconds. Fortunately for me, it's not a nuclear detonation. At that distance, both me and my camera gear would be fried.

I thought it was pretty cool, so I set up my camera and started taking test exposures. During one of the shots, I noticed a plane in the distance getting ready to turn around before landing at the Gold Coast International Airport. I've watched planes do this maneuver many times before, and I knew my camera was in the right place to capture its path, so I stopped the current exposure and set a new one going. Once it had flown its huge arc around the sky, I stopped the exposure with my IR remote.

After looking back on my photo archives, I realised that this event is a relatively common occurrence. But no other photos in my collection have the glowy orange mushroom-like cloud, so for that reason, this one is my favourite.

So why did I say it was a nuke? For the lolz. With only a few deviants commenting on the photo, it was easy enough for me to tell them what it really was. But now that it's rather popular, and things are getting a bit out of hand, I should probably make it clear that it is not a nuclear test or anything radioactive. It's been decades since nuclear weapons were tested in Australia , and none were tested on the eastern side of the country where this photo was taken. If there were any nuclear tests off the coast of a large city, there'd be a worldwide outcry - which there hasn't been. So unless there's been an epic coverup operation, I can confirm it's not nuclear.

Hopefully that clears up a few questions. If you have anything else to ask, feel free. I'll answer as soon as I can (but that may take a while).

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Oh, and the photo got moved from Photography > Animals, Plants & Nature > Weather to Photography > Abstract & Surreal > Surreal. Strange, because when I took the photo, I took it because it was really cool weather, not because it was abstract or surreal (although it is).

Description
Oh, and if you're wondering, it is a nuke*.

Nikon D50 + 18-55 kit @ 25mm

4+ min exposure, PSCS3 Curves.

Location: Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Australia.
Lat: 28° 5' 23.76" S
Lon: 153° 27' 27.90" E

-----------

* No, not really, but it does look pretty convincing.

I should mention what was actually going on in the photo. What you see in the photo is two different stormclouds. The closer and brighter one is easily identifiable as such, and is a pretty common sight in Australian summers. However, the smaller and more distant orange one is quite unusual. It was cloud lightning, and it was pulsing yellow once every few seconds. Fortunately for me, it's not a nuclear detonation. At that distance, both me and my camera gear would be fried.

I thought it was pretty cool, so I set up my camera and started taking test exposures. During one of the shots, I noticed a plane in the distance getting ready to turn around before landing at the Gold Coast International Airport. I've watched planes do this maneuver many times before, and I knew my camera was in the right place to capture its path, so I stopped the current exposure and set a new one going. Once it had flown its huge arc around the sky, I stopped the exposure with my IR remote.

After looking back on my photo archives, I realised that this event is a relatively common occurrence. But no other photos in my collection have the glowy orange mushroom-like cloud, so for that reason, this one is my favourite.

So why did I say it was a nuke? For the lolz. With only a few deviants commenting on the photo, it was easy enough for me to tell them what it really was. But now that it's rather popular, and things are getting a bit out of hand, I should probably make it clear that it is not a nuclear test or anything radioactive. It's been decades since nuclear weapons were tested in Australia , and none were tested on the eastern side of the country where this photo was taken. If there were any nuclear tests off the coast of a large city, there'd be a worldwide outcry - which there hasn't been. So unless there's been an epic coverup operation, I can confirm it's not nuclear.

Hopefully that clears up a few questions. If you have anything else to ask, feel free. I'll answer as soon as I can (but that may take a while).

---
Oh, and the photo got moved from Photography > Animals, Plants & Nature > Weather to Photography > Abstract & Surreal > Surreal. Strange, because when I took the photo, I took it because it was really cool weather, not because it was abstract or surreal (although it is).