Information on a famous lightning photo?

May 27, 2004 12:33 PM

Anyone have info on this famous lightning photo?

Here's a Google image search. I'm interested in the two brothers photo, but info on the female would be welcome, too.

I reached the limits of my Google-fu. Only one source says these are the "McQuirken" brothers. Other pages claim that they were unharmed, but another person was subsequently killed. One source says that they and a sister were killed.

I'm thinking this is the famous hair-standing on end photo that I saw referenced and which initiated my search. Is it?

posted by Ethereal Bligh to media & arts (4 answers total)

Oops. I swear the boys photo was in the search results. Here's a link to the photo in question.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:39 PM on May 27, 2004

I should have composed the comment inside beforehand, huh? Anyway, it's "Sean and Michael McQuilken", mentioned on the linked page. But that's the only result Google finds on those names in this context, and one would think they'd be identified elsewhere.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:43 PM on May 27, 2004

From your link:

"Consider the experience of the McQuilken family on their trip to Sequoia National Park, California, in August 1975. As the sky began to darken, Sean, Michael, and their sister Mary noticed their hair standing on end. Recognizing the apparent comedy of the situation, the boys posed for the photograph shown in Figure 11-1. Hail followed almost immediately. Then lightning struck--literally--and Sean was knocked unconscious. Michael quickly administered artificial respiration, which probably saved Sean's life. Another victim was less fortunate, however. The lightning had apparently forked off, with another branch hitting two nearby people, one of whom was killed."

How much more information are you looking to gather?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:21 PM on May 27, 2004

I don't fully trust that info. It's the only account with that nearly much detail, and it differs from the others quite a bit. And like I said, a search for the name doesn't yield any other hits, anywhere, which seems odd to me. Yeah, that means it could be the correct version and the others are all apocryphal, but I was hoping for confirmation or something.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:00 PM on May 27, 2004