The Waterman's Memorial in Chincoteague, Virginia.

Chincoteague is a small island town on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Many of the people that live there make their living on the water. Which comes with inherent risks. This is a memorial that was built in honor of the men and women of Chincoteague who lost their lives at sea.

Me and my wife spent a couple days on the island as a pit stop on our way to New York. During the day I was scouting the island trying to find a cool subject for a milky way shot. I had planned on shooting the lighthouse at night, however it is part of a national park that closed at night. Which I was not aware of till I got there. What kind of national park closes? It was also surrounded by trees and the mosquitos were horrible. So I set out on a new plan. While exploring the island we came across this memorial out on the end of the island on the sound side. I figured this would be as good as subject as any.

I didn't spend too long out here photographing, probably only about an hour or less. The settings are standard milky way settings. F/2.8 iso 3200 and probably 15 second exposure. I don't remember. The cross is being lit from a street light in the parking lot a few yards away. In the middle of one of my exposures there was a bright flash that seemed to come from nowhere. It kind of freaked me out. I had no idea what it was. Then I noticed way out in the distance over the water was a storm, and the lightning was popping off. I managed to capture a lighting bolt way off in the distance with the milky way. Which I thought was pretty cool.