BoM 2024 calendar: Ivan Sajko’s shot
Ivan Sajko’s stunning shot of a lightning strike over the ocean made the BoM 2024 calendar. What’s the story behind it?
Ivan Sajko worked as a printer in Sydney for 23 years, overseeing the thundering presses that churned out millions of magazines and catalogues every week. Ten years ago he took a redundancy and moved with his wife Kate and their three young boys to Port Macquarie on NSW’s mid-north coast, a place they knew well from family holidays. These days he’s a delivery driver for Coles’ online shopping. He loves being out on the road, bringing food to people – and every summer afternoon when he walks up a driveway or across a lawn with a box of produce, he always has one eye on the sky, observing the clouds, looking for telltale signs of a storm on the way.
“Those stinking hot and humid days when it’s up in the mid-30s, then you get a southerly change coming through – that’s when you know there’s a good chance it’ll be on,” says Sajko, 50. He doesn’t call himself a storm chaser, because he doesn’t chase them: he just goes to the headland at Tacking Point Lighthouse, which provides a grandstand view. He’s a man with a deep appreciation for meteorology’s high drama. “I think storms are beautiful, and every one is different,” he says. For the past few years he’s been photographing them. This shot of his from the Bureau of Meteorology’s 2024 calendar (on sale at shop.bom.gov.au) is a favourite. “It’s got everything I look for : really good cloud structure, a massive rain-dump over the land – and that amazing lightning bolt with its pink-purple light reflecting off the clouds and the water.” (Those surfers would be well advised to get out of the water, you might be thinking. “They didn’t though,” he says. “They don’t even get out when the shark alarm goes off.”)
This is the second time Sajko’s work has made the BoM calendar, after debuting in 2021. It’s a badge of honour among Port Macquarie’s community of storm fanciers, who flock to Tacking Point Lighthouse to revel in the thunder, lightning and hail. His wife Kate, a midwife, isn’t among them though. “I don’t bother trying to convert her any more,” he laughs. “It’s not her sort of thing at all. She hates storms!”
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