Behind The Photo | After The Storm, Varese, Italy

It was late summer. It had been raining in buckets all day, and the whole thing was wrapped up by a major rain-wind-lightning-and-thunder storm. While living in Hawai’i, I have seen major rain storms, and even almost-hurricanes, and I have heard people get excited about a teensy bit of thunder and lighting. Pfft! The hurricanes (or almost) were indeed scary and intense, but the sound and light show… nah! In Northern Italy, so close to the Alps, the thunder and lightning storms are serious deals, and intensely loud, scaring dogs, children and sometimes even adults.

One time (not at band camp), years after this shot, the electrical energy was so intense I could feel the tension even inside the house. I myself was buzzing with it. Until it was released, unfortunately by a lighting hitting my favorite pine tree outside my house. I was going through a difficult period, with lots of hard decisions to be made. The cracking noise was so loud I thought it had hit the house. I instantly felt the tree had taken the hit for me. It lost its top, but did not die, and is now still thriving, I miss it, a lot.

Back to our scene: finally the rain and wind stopped, and I saw this from the window. I rushed to get my camera (my old Nikon F) and clicked, grateful to have some film in it. No filters, no fuss, no post production in a then inexistent Photoshop. Adobe wasn’t even a glimmer in the founders’ eye, who was probably still a child, like me.

This was photographed from the window of my family’s home in Varese, Italy, and these are scans from film.

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