It was early morning when this storm cloud ignited over the Flores Sea. I was getting ready for a morning of photography on the island of Flores, Indonesia for Komodo dragons. As I came out of my sleeping quarters, I noticed what I originally thought was a camera flash. But getting on deck there was nobody there but me. Then the flash happened again, and I saw the potential beauty.
Photography is an ongoing exercise in serendipity. It’s the reason they say the best camera is the one you have with you. In this case, it was my Olympus OM-1 with the Leica 12-60mm zoom lens. There were two things about this camera that made this picture possible. The first is the ability to shoot what Olympus calls Pro Capture. This short video explains it in more detail.
The second is the amazing image stabilization the OM-1 has, which allowed me to shoot from a boat with no tripod. Without either of these two unique tools, this image would have been just a memory within my mind.