This image from a slide was Bo Insogna’s first shot that got him hooked on lightning, taken in the desert north of Phoenix in 1988. Courtesy James “Bo” Insogna For more information Go to www.TheLightningMan.com

For local man, photographing lightning is a calling

By Magdalena Wegrzyn
© 2009-2010 Longmont Times-Call

LONGMONT — When the sky darkens, thunder rumbles and lightning glistens most people curl up under the covers.

James “Bo” Insogna grabs his cameras and heads out.

“It’s in my blood now,” he said, waving off the idea of missing out on a lightning show.

Insogna, a family photographer who lives in Longmont, has found a niche in the world of weather fanatics — photographing lightning.

And this summer’s usually stormy weather has kept him busy.

“It kind of took me by surprise this year,” he said. “Spring hit, and and it was like wham, wham, wham, wham.”

Insogna moved from Pittsburgh to Boulder in 1979 and opened his first photography studio. He relocated five years later to Arizona, where he worked as a freelance photographer for more than 20 years. Two years ago, he returned to Boulder County.

Insogna’s infatuation — almost obsession, he admits — with lightning started with a photo he shot in 1988 while working in Scottsdale, Ariz. The image depicts a cluster of lightning illuminating the sky behind a thicket of cacti.

“When the film came back, I was like, ‘Holy crap. This is the coolest thing,’” he said.

At that moment, he became fixated with capturing Mother Nature’s fireworks. More than 20 years later, he’s still wowed by the power of lightning.

On June 22, he followed a spontaneous storm as it traveled north to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fort Collins. Insogna set up his cameras on automatic timers and watched from his car as the bolts ripped up the sky.

For the finished product, Insogna layered the shots into one final product, the equivalent of a 21/2 minute exposure. Although he draws the line at manufacturing lightning, he often overlays several minutes of strikes on top of one another to create a more imposing effect.

“I look at lightning as an art,” he said.

Last winter, he displayed work at the Muse Gallery in Longmont. This summer, he will present a private show at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. His gallery of image are also available for sale on his Web site.

At any given time, Insogna is working on capturing “the shot.” One year, it was lightning touching down behind a cluster of horse statues at WestWorld of Scottsdale. For a while, he patiently waited for bolts to hit next to a metal cross in Arizona. This year’s ideal shot is a storm outlining Longs Peak.

So far, he’s still waiting. In fact, there’s quite a bit of that in storm chasing. Occasionally, Insogna brings friends on a ride along. Usually, they fall asleep.

“You waste a lot of time and patience,” he said. “You spend a lot of time driving around getting nothing.”

Although he shoots on the edge of the storm, it’s still a dangerous hobby — especially because the tripods Insogna prefers to use are metal.

“I don’t even get out of the car sometimes,” he said. “You kinda wait and play it out.”

And even if you do see a spectacular storm, Colorado’s weather is notoriously fickle. Sometimes by the time Insogna pulls over on the side of the road, the storm has already dispersed.

“I’ve taken a lot of great pictures with my mind,” he said with a laugh.

Magdalena Wegrzyn can be reached at 303-684-5274 or mwegrzyn@times-call.com.

Related Post:

STRIKE ZONE – Lightning energizes nature photographer

Four Lightning Strikes

Budweiser Brewery Ft Collins Colorado Lightning Strike Video

Lightning man strikes Boulder County

Striking Photography -Yippy Yi Yea Magazine

The Lightning Man, Bo Insogna on TV 3

James “Bo” Insogna, “The Lightning Man” Striking Photography featured on ABC News TV 15

James Bo Insogna – The Lightning Man – Striking Photography

The Valley can be a magnet for lightning and lightning chasers during

the monsoon season. Local photographer Jacobo “Bo” Insogna

captured this image of lightning strikes in North Scottsdale.

Photo by Jacobo “Bo” Insogna/Special to

Independent Newspapers

STRIKE ZONE

Published:
Jul 23, 2003 – 10:20:02 AM MDT  Wendy Miller / Independent
Newspapers

www.NewsZap.com (C)
allrights reserverd

Lightning energizes nature photographer

By Wendy Miller/Independent Newspapers

It was the one time Jacobo Insogna dared Mother Nature.

Lightning was striking all across the McDowell Mountains in North
Scottsdale. Rain started to fall, heightening the risk factor.

The opportunity to capture frenzied bolts of energy over the bronze
horses at WestWorld had eluded the freelance photographer for two long
years, but on this rainy night, all the elements were in place to get the
long-awaited shot.

“When I first saw the horses, they looked like lightning had hit and
they were rearing,” said Mr. Insogna, who goes by “Bo.”
“I waited and waited and one night it was right.”

Grasping his 35mm Pentax camera with a 50mm lens, he traveled up Pima
Road. This was before Highway 101 had opened through the area. There was no
traffic so he was able to position himself in the middle of the street.

“It started to rain and here I was in the water with a metal tripod
and the lightning is hitting 100 feet away,” he said, “so I got
the shot and got out.”

Mr. Insogna is one of a handful of professional photographers who get
paid for chasing lightning. He moved from Boulder, Colo. to Arizona in 1987,
after a downturn in Colorado’s economy put a bite on his horse photography
business.

(C) 2003 Jacobo Insogna www.ArizonaLightning.com
all right reserved

Sculpture by Snell Johnson

The outdoorsman was lured here by the opportunity to photograph the
Arabian horse market. However, he was quickly enamoured with the quick
weather changes and spectacular night shows produced by lightning during
monsoon season.

And there are plenty of evening lightning shows to view. Arizona is
second in the nation for the number of lightning strikes recorded. Florida
is number one.

From July to September-Arizona’s monsoon season-photographers like Bo
Insogna are in their glory capturing the bolts of white and yellow as they
rip across the night skies. But Mr. Insogna also has seen the damage such
high velocity beauty can produce.

“Rain can come in with such force that you get stuck and can’t get
out,” he said. “Mother Nature is nothing to play with. With each
storm, it seems I see someone in a car floating up to their windows in
rain.”

Danger comes not only from rain but also from the lightning itself.

“One time at Pinnacle Peak, the lightning shot sideways,” Mr.
Insogna remembered. “It’s an eerie feeling when you’re shooting and all
the hairs on your body stand up. There’s a smell, an odor as the static
charge builds. You can tell something is going on but it’s not a good thing,
so you get out.”

The beauty of northeast desert keeps the photographer coming back.

“North Scottsdale is very pretty, especially all the saguaros, and
there is easy access to many of these places,” he noted. Freeways, such
as the 101, provide him with a bird’s eye view of the higher elevations.

But it’s the lightning that really energizes him.

“Sometimes the storms come in like a rocket,” Mr. Insogna said.
“The monsoon season comes in like clockwork every year, but the
lightning is unpredictable. I’ve seen it go from the sky to the ground,
horizontally across the sky, and in balls of fire.

“The lightning hits the highest points,” he continued.
“Sometimes the heat from the mountains seems to attract it; I’ve seen
it jump between mountaintops. Other times it hovers over certain
areas.”

The dedicated photog has two choices when a lightning storm is sighted.
He can position himself in a prime location and wait for the lightning to
come to him. Or he can chase it.

“It depends on whether I’m trying to get a specific shot or if I’m
doing some general lightning chasing,” he said. “I try to have
some locations set up ahead of time that would look good as backgrounds for
lightning.”

Sometimes he just sits back and admires the view.

“I’ve watched a storm just walk down the mountains,” Mr.
Insogna said. “I’ve seen the lightning light up the crevice of the
mountains and illuminate incredible plants and animals.”

But he also has tremendous respect for the power of a storm and takes
precautions to protect his camera equipment-and his body-from harm.

“Safety is number one,” he said. “Once you put yourself in
the area of a lightning storm, you could be struck.”

Mr. Insogna wears rubberized shoes because leather can conduct
electricity from the lightning. Rain gear is a must to protect his camera
from the rain. And he stays close to his vehicle.

“A car is always the safety zone,” he said. “Stay inside
until the storm rolls through. The rubber tires will protect you.”

Typically, the monsoon season has officially begun by July 7. This year,
lightning chasers like Bo Insogna are itching to press their camera trigger
finger.

“I’m always looking for something spectacular,” he said.

Tips on Photographing Lightning

Photographer
James  “Bo” Insogna has
spent many years photographing lightning over North Scottsdale and other Valley locations. He shared the following tips on how to capture the images on film.

Watch the weather. Be prepared and ready to go if a storm is moving toward your area.

• Safety is of utmost importance. Don’t put yourself in
  danger. You or your tripod could be the high point lightning
  is seeking to strike. If you’re in the middle of the desert
  and find yourself in danger, retreat to your car. Remember,
  with its four rubber tires, your car provides a safe zone.

• Wait and anticipate. Pick a location you feel would make a
  scenic background, then set up your equipment. Don’t be
  discouraged if you don’t get the shot you want. It took Mr.
  Insogna two years to get the cover shot at WestWorld.

• Chase the lightning. You may not get the background you
  wanted, but you’ll have more chances of photographing Mother
  Nature’s brightest moments. Sometimes lightning happens all
  around you. Take advantage of it.

• Use a tripod and shutter cable for timed shots.

• Timed exposures can require camera shutters to be open
  from a couple seconds to a minute. The key is to watch where
  lightning is hitting, then count from 1 to whenever it hits
  again. Do this for several strikes. If you recognize regular
  intervals, open your shutter before the lightning strikes
  again.

• Use slower films that are less grainy than their faster
  counterparts. Look for 64 or 100 ASA (film speed)
  transparency films. These can be enlarged with greater
  clarity.

Related Post:

Four Lightning Strikes

Budweiser Brewery Ft Collins Colorado Lightning Strike Video

Lightning man strikes Boulder County

Striking Photography -Yippy Yi Yea Magazine

The Lightning Man, Bo Insogna on TV 3

James “Bo” Insogna, “The Lightning Man” Striking Photography featured on ABC News TV 15

James Bo Insogna – The Lightning Man – Striking Photography

By Laura Snider (Contact)
Monday, June 22, 2009

James “Bo” Insogna, of Longmont, specializes in lightning photography. Check out more of his lightning-strike photos at www.thelightningman.com.

LONGMONT, Colo. — James “Bo” Insogna had already been a professional photographer for several years before he took the shot that wowed him — the one that would plot out the course of his career over the next 20 years.

He was working in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1988 when he captured the bright white streaks of lightning cutting the sky behind a silhouette of tall saguaro cacti.

“I was like, ‘Wow.’ It was just the most spectacular shot that I had ever seen,” Insgona remembers thinking when the film was developed. “And then I started my career as a storm chaser.”

Now Insogna, a veteran lightning photographer, has moved back to Boulder County, where he started his first photography studio in 1984. And this spring’s string of storms is keeping him busy.

“My neighbors say, ‘We’re always running inside when you’re always running out,’” said Insogna, who now lives near county open space west of Longmont.

The art of taking a good shot of lightning requires flexibility — being willing and ready to go shoot photos when thunder rumbles overhead in the middle of the night — and an eye for composing a picture that captures more than just electricity moving between land and sky, Insogna said.

“It’s not about getting a picture of lightning,” he said. “It’s about getting an interesting picture of lightning.”

In fact, Insogna has a wish list of sorts — places where he can imagine the powerful image of a statue, a barn or even a cross with lightning striking behind. When a storm goes in, he looks for the strikes and tries to determine if the storm is in just the right place to become the backdrop he’s imagined.

Of course, plenty of times a night of chasing storms doesn’t yield any pictures worth using. But that — and the danger of the lightning — are part of the thrill of the chase.

“I have a rule,” Insogna said. “If every hair on your body starts to stand up, if you can start to smell the ozone in the air, run for cover.”

Source: Boulder Daily Camera

Welcome to “The Lightning Man” Web site.

Hello, my name is James Insogna, thank you for stopping by! Bo is my nickname, I am based in Boulder County, Colorado. I’ve been chasing lightning storms since the late eighties, over twenty years. Back then we were shooting film. It’s amazing how much has changed and also how many people have taken up this exciting Storm Chasing adventure catching lightning storms on camera. When you see that first image, you can get hooked very easily.  When the storms die in the USA they are just starting down under in Australia.  Hoping to some day chase storms over there too in our winter.

The Lightning Man Prints have been purchased from collectors from all over the world and have been featured on the front page of Fine Art America, Imagekind and Redbubble. Images have also appeared and been featured on Television, Magazines, Newspapers, Books and licensed for all kinds of media.

Look for some of the TV interviews and media features on the site.

Custom prints are available in all sizes and shipped world wide to your door. Also canvas art prints, posters, and greeting cards. Gallery

If you are interested in or looking for a good human interest story your readers or audience will love, images are always available.

Also if you would like to use or license one of the images on the site or in a gallery go here to the Stock Striking Photography Image Site

It is my hope that when you see my work you see that my style is a little different and has been considered some of the best lightning images in the world. There are shots that have been worked on for many years just to get the storm to be in the right place at the right time… and even more … me being in the right place at the right time. My gear is always ready to go and when the crack thunder sounds, it is my calling to get out and chase a storm. In other words when everyone is running inside ( and you should) it is out the door into the thick of things for me. It is more than just getting a shot of a lightning bolt… it is about getting an interesting shot of lightning.

Please make no mistake, it is extremely exciting to catch some lightning bolts on camera and is even an incredible rush… but it can be extremely dangerous. So if you decide you want to be a “storm chaser” be aware of your surroundings and have the right gear.

There have been a few times all the hair on my body stood up and I knew there was a charge building, there have also been many situations I have crawled out of. When the Budweiser Storm images happened, that was a chase that almost took me from Boulder County to Wyoming. At the start of the photo shoot: First, the remote on the camera would get hit. Next, I would jump in the back of the SUV with my feet off the ground with comfort of four rubber tires for safety. It was the most erratic lightning I’ve ever seen. Scary stuff. You could not tell where the bolts were going to hit next. Front of you, behind you or on top of you! So safety is always number one.

“A Season Of Lightning” by Troy Ruiz May be used for reprint. Download a FREE copy here.

If you click on the gallery button on top it will take you to all the images. Check out the Lightning gallery.

I still have Images to be added and work being uploaded all the time.  Please Subscribe to my Art feed Click Here

Again thanks for taking the time to check out the site and images.

Striking Photography By Bo Insogna – Longmont – Boulder – Photographer

Direct: 303-834-2524 Toll Free 1-888-682-0122