Storm

gus

Hit 10 mins ago...i am still after a lightning shot (any tips ?)

We get one of these storms pretty much everyday between 3-6 pm at this time of the year. Lots of sheet lightning...a great sight & sound !

gus

and again...

wxwax

Shooting lightning can kill you.

I had to say that, because it's true. If you want the good shots, you have to take silly chances by putting yourself in the places where lightning stirkes.

As for technique, here's a link to a fellow who calls himself Lightning Boy. The dude has some issues, but he knows his stuff and he delivers quality stills and video.

Bottom line, you can't wait until you see lightning to squeeze the trigger. No-one's fast enough to pull that off. You have to point your camera where lightning is likely to strike, and run long exposures, hoping a bolt hits while your shutter is open. As Lightning Boy says, you have to know a bit about the weather to make it work. It ain't easy, and it most definitely is not safe, but you can get cool shots.




Me, I've always wanted to see a tornado in person. Someday, I will. It can take days, sometimes weeks of chasing before you see one. So you have to be prepared to invest the time. Which is hard to do when you have a full time job.

gus

Thanks for the link waxy..i will have a good slow read.

Lightning is always a worry...we get so much of it here. Last week-end there were 44,580 strikes in 12 hours just south of me !! Killed several people. Being an electrician i am pretty aware of "101 of how not to be a lightning rod" I am always under a strong roof of some description.

Unfortunatly (for photo purposes) we dont get many tornadoes here. Screw them..they are about the only thing you cant run from if the cards fall badly. Freind of mine in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in 2002 was skippering one of the maxi's that got chased at sea by this baby. It was 500 yards at the base & was tracking at 40 knotts. He said they were shit scared as what are you going to do on a boat ? said the noise was deafening.

Here is a pic of it. Pretty big on the scale they recon. Passed some of the race boats by 200 yards.

wxwax

I heard about that one. We have a show with some video of it. It did hit one boat in the race and capsized it. Luckily, waterspouts are much, much weaker than most tornadoes - they're missing some important ingredients.

KC Action

Wxwax, you need to visit Oklahoma in the spring time if your looking for tornadic action. At times we get lightning storms that can boggle the mind. It makes movie special effects look like a dim light bulb in comparison.


I moved to Tulsa the same weekend in 1993 that the killer tornado struck in East Tulsa and Catoosa, Oklahoma. It was one of the most powerful recorded at that time. It literally stripped all the grass from the median on Interstate 244 leaving bare dirt. It was later surpassed just a few years ago by the massive F5+ (probably created a new category F6) that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma in south Oklahoma City. Thats sustained winds over 550 mph. Laws of physics can be suspended by the force. Here's a couple of lightning bolts that I captured just norht of Wagoner, Oklahoma as a front rolled in from the west.

KC Action

Here's another... I was never really happy with how these turned out. Got a lot of artifacts and speckling with exposures over about 8 seconds.

cmr164

KC Action wrote:

Here's another... I was never really happy with how these turned out. Got a lot of artifacts and speckling with exposures over about 8 seconds.

Can't help much with the artifacts but the speckling in easy...

cmr164

KC Action wrote:

Wxwax, you need to visit Oklahoma in the spring time if your looking for tornadic action. At times we get lightning storms that can boggle the mind. It makes movie special effects look like a dim light bulb in comparison.

Despeckled and a .5 gamma adjustment

KC Action

Thanks for the assist guys. I am very much a neophyte at Photoshop. Lord knows the help fiunction must have been written by the same people who do the Help for Autodesk. Its like trying to understand legalese.

wxwax

Nice job capturing the lighting. It's a scary business. Lightning can strike 5-10 miles away from the last bolt, so it's hard to know exactly where is safe, other than under a sturdy roof.