Power

davidryan

Hi All--

Finally got around to processing this photo of a thunderstorm in Colorado (very near my home). The storm produced a huge amount of lightning-- most of it so strong it more often than not exceeded my camera's capabilities even with an 8 ND filter on. What you cannot see in this photo is Pikes Peak, a 14,110 foot mountain (Colorado Springs at the bottom) totally obscured by the storm. It is no wonder the acient people of the world once thought God lived atop the mountains.



Thanks for looking-- Ryan

eoren1

Very cool capture! I have yet to get a thunderstorm...
Only comment is that the I would prefer either more or less of the bottom of the photo. Right now, it's too small to give scale or a sense of place. A bit more (if this is a crop) would help pull the viewer in a bit more (I think).
E

Marc Muench

Lightening on its own can become common, I like seing the city below and the exposure on the clouds works well

I hope you weren't out standing in a puddle with a tripodrofl

davidryan

eoren1 wrote:

Very cool capture! I have yet to get a thunderstorm...
Only comment is that the I would prefer either more or less of the bottom of the photo. Right now, it's too small to give scale or a sense of place. A bit more (if this is a crop) would help pull the viewer in a bit more (I think).
E

I agree-- to an extent. Before this photo was taken-- minutes before-- you could see the entire city and some of the mountain-- the balance you speak of was there. However, the storm let loose and this is what resulted. I chose to keep the small bit of landscape on the bottom because to me it gives the real idea of what it looked like. I took this photo from a ridge, so not much else was visible but the ridge once the storm got going.

Thanks for the critique!

davidryan

Marc Muench wrote:

Lightening on its own can become common, I like seing the city below and the exposure on the clouds works well

I hope you weren't out standing in a puddle with a tripodrofl

Thanks-- and I agree, lightning can become common-- without the idea of the size of the strikes, it isn't all that impressive. The city (or the part thereof) you see is a 500K population-- a nice sized area.

With regard to where I was standing-- no puddles and I was quick to pack up as the storm was headed my way. No hail damage either-- was pretty lucky.

Mikko

This is an awesome shot. I wish we got more lighting here in the Central Valley of California.