Over the last week, we had a few days of storms throughout the district within driving distance of home. I had grand plans to spend the day chasing lightning to get my first bolt. However the local supermarket that I work at is facing staff shortages which meant my plans were delayed to pick up some extra shifts.

Fast forward two days. I finished work at 4pm and was heading home when I saw some stunning clouds in the distance. With the faint sound of thunder rumbling in the distance I raced home, got changed, picked up my camera bag and raced back to the car. 

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<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/benwickenton/23xKk6tKCtm4D2sjpnq8gxbUQ2XmBMgBWQNeBRMeMJYt9CfK6BemBQRE61uRfp1Q4zzYp.jpg" alt="cowsWindFarm.jpg">


<center>
*Some curious cows coming over to say g'day*
</center>

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### The next challenge: Where to go??

I had a look at my lighting tracker app and decided that I would go for my "bucket shot" at a wind farm about 40 mins away. On my way out it started pelting down with rain and I knew I had no chance of getting out there in time.


Instead, I headed to 'The Mortlake South Wind Farm' which is currently under construction where I got my first shot of the trip. It was here where the rain started to come down.

Once I got this panorama it was a race to get somewhere in front of the storm.

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### Next stop: Some random side road in the middle of nowhere

I was able to get in front of the storm, and found this comp of a cool windmill with the storm in the background!





<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/benwickenton/23xeZ56Y7Xft1Duc8iW2J7H8sAEM52BajzBeygS8Cwrm8e81V5tavvCLWGXaDrhzsxWhu.jpg" alt="stormyWindFarm.jpg">


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*The light behind the windmill looks really cool, but wasn't intentional when framing it!*
</center>

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I was heading along the road when I stumbled across a really cool shearing shed which had the storm behind it! This was the perfect spot to capture the storm, and I created a panorama from 7 vertical images to include the whole structure and storm.



<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/benwickenton/EogKtSgcGJguhBqEgDaa4S3ZgkyENfA5xQCHxBpphNEt7vmTkss2UAr7KnQEay6jPVc.jpg" alt="ShearingShedMortlake.jpg">


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*An old shearing shed found down a side road when storm chasing!*
</center>

This was my favourite image from the trip and made me extremely happy that I decieded to venture out even though I had little plans on where to end up. 

If I hadn't listened to my gut when deciding whether to go for it, I would have probably never found this really cool location!




Thanks for reading! 
You can find my intro post 	<a href="https://peakd.com/hive-121296/@benwickenton/introducing-myself-to-the-hive">here</a>