Spring Thunderstorms and Lightning

jamesl

Hi All,

One of my photography passions is shooting lightning and thunderstorms. We've had a pretty active storm season already here in North Texas. It's nice, because last season was a dud for me. Here's a few of my shots from this Spring. I shoot with a Canon 10D, and use my Intervalometer remote to take quick repeated exposures.



Tried my hand at a lightning pano. Pretty hard to do, as the intensitity of the lightning was different in the different images. Came out ok, I think.



This little Church made a nice forground for the storms as they approached. Tons of bolts in the clouds, but not many visible.



I captured the above shot, and the next few, from a parking garage near work. The lightning was intense during these storms, so I was glad I was in the garage.











This last pano I was pretty happy with. The lightning wasn't very strong that evening, but I like how it kind of splits up the picture. I've been wanting to get a shot from this location for a while.

Thanks for looking!

James

James Langford
http://www.langfordphotography.com

ehughes

I like em all... great job.

evil eggplant

excellent
Not much lightning here in the desert, so I don't get much chance at this sort of thing. Doesn't matter, I doubt I could ever take lightning photos this good. Very well done.

jamesl wrote:

Hi All,

One of my photography passions is shooting lightning and thunderstorms. We've had a pretty active storm season already here in North Texas. It's nice, because last season was a dud for me. Here's a few of my shots from this Spring. I shoot with a Canon 10D, and use my Intervalometer remote to take quick repeated exposures.

Tried my hand at a lightning pano. Pretty hard to do, as the intensitity of the lightning was different in the different images. Came out ok, I think.

This little Church made a nice forground for the storms as they approached. Tons of bolts in the clouds, but not many visible.

I captured the above shot, and the next few, from a parking garage near work. The lightning was intense during these storms, so I was glad I was in the garage.

This last pano I was pretty happy with. The lightning wasn't very strong that evening, but I like how it kind of splits up the picture. I've been wanting to get a shot from this location for a while.

Thanks for looking!

James

James Langford
http://www.langfordphotography.com

USAIR

Really good job on these
Did you keep...dry any tips?

Thanks
Fred

ultravox

Great series, loving all of them.

David_S85

Whoa! James, these are all very good! Thanks for sharing them here.

Are you still shooting IR's

gus

Clean shots !!

I only heard on strike on sunday...now i face several months without them. This is going to be hard to sit out.

Beaverhausen

Very nice! I like the captions as well.

PetersCreek

Stormy Evening has got to be my favorite of all these excellent captures.

For all of Alaska's pluses, I do on occasion miss the raging thunderstorms I used to watch down South. Thunder and lightning just isn't very common in the Anchorage area. Years ago, I especially got a kick out of the really energetic electrical storms. When I had a safe place to do it, I'd sit in a lawn chair and just watch. Better than fireworks!

Seefutlung

Nicely done James.

Khaos

Very nice. I really like the last one the best.

MelP

Those are AWESOME!! I've tried to capture lightning a few times, but so far it has never worked out. Hopefully, I'll capture some as great as yours.

Thanks for sharing!!

Mel

jamesl

ehughes wrote:

I like em all... great job.

Thanks Ed! I appreciate it.

jamesl

evil eggplant wrote:

Not much lightning here in the desert, so I don't get much chance at this sort of thing. Doesn't matter, I doubt I could ever take lightning photos this good. Very well done.

Howdy Evil. I've seen your photography. I'm sure you could handle shooting lightning. I've shot a few desert storms. The best thing about them is that you can see the lightning for miles.

Take care,

James

jamesl

USAIR wrote:

Really good job on these
Did you keep...dry any tips?

Thanks
Fred

Hey Fred. Thanks! I did keep pretty dry. I'm not real fond of shooting in the rain. A lot of the shots above were from a parking garage near my work. Many others I shoot as the storms are moving away.

As for advice, I'd say just get out there and try it. You've got to have a tripod. Stick your camera on Manual mode. For starters, use an aperature of around F8, and exposure speed of 10 seconds or so. Find a storm, and just shoot away. I like to find something interesting to shoot in the forground. Usually a buliding or skyline. Set your camera settings to expose the scene, and then just let the lightning do it's thing.

Good luck!

James

jamesl

ultravox wrote:

Great series, loving all of them.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them.

jamesl

David_S85 wrote:

Whoa! James, these are all very good! Thanks for sharing them here.

Are you still shooting IR's

Howdy David! Nice to see an old Sony name. Yeah, I still do shoot IRs. I do a lot of them now with my 10D. Works pretty well, but the focussing can be tough. I still take my F707 with me everywhere I go, just for shooting IR. It's still a great camera!

Thanks,

James

jamesl

gus wrote:

Clean shots !!

I only heard on strike on sunday...now i face several months without them. This is going to be hard to sit out.

I know how you feel. I hate wintertime in Texas. Lots of rain, but never any thunderstorms. We've had tons of activity the last few days, but it's been at like 3 or 4 in the morning. Too early for me most of the time.

See ya!

James

tmlphoto

Great shots. The last one stands out to me. Love the light on that one.

jamesl

Beaverhausen wrote:

Very nice! I like the captions as well.

Thanks a ton! Glad you liked the captions. I usually wonder if they are pretty cheesy.

James

jamesl

Seefutlung wrote:

Nicely done James.

Thank you!

Phil U.

Cool stuff James.