This series is from a photo shoot taken at Charleston Lake Provincial Park in August 2025. What you don’t see is me hiking with 20lbs of lenses and equipment in near total darkness, while scrambling over rocks and tree roots. Then I encountered some rowdy teenagers who yelled at me from their speedboat, but I decided to carry on in another direction.

What makes these photos special is that it was a completely moonless night, and it was well after sundown, actually minutes after what’s called civil twilight. The sky was also clear of pollution and wildfire smoke. The last images are of distant lightning.