Thursday night's storm

[Goat Roper]

OK, this was my first shot at lightning. The widest lense I had was my kit lense (18-55) so the shots could unquestionably been alot better with a sharper lense.

Had some time late last night to catch the big storms rolling into Milwaukee. I went to my work a couple miles away and went to the top of the parking structure. The trees were tough to deal with since they were lit up like christmas trees from the contruction of a new building on site.

I was going for the long of bolts as they came in and with the distance and the rain around them, they were gold in color which gave the clouds a gold color as they flashed. I had to kick the f-stop up to about a 5 I believe to get this all.

http://www.webtrendsguy.com/photobook/data/media/21/0338.jpg

Then, out of frickin' no where this thing pops right in front of me while I was shooting behind it. With a 11-13 f-stop this would have been a great shot but it saturated on 5. I shot it in RAW so I dropped the exposure in CS3 and low and behold at least SOME detail is in there.

BTW, it scared the shit out of me.

http://www.webtrendsguy.com/photobook/data/media/21/0340.jpg

Anyway, the number one lesson I learned is to be prepared for damn near anything and once that storm gets close stop going for the far off shots :thumbsup

[moels]

Wow! Cool pictures. That second one would have freaked me out too.

[Flicktitty]

thats some cool stuff! i've always tried catching lightning but never have any luck!

[BAD LS1]

God those are some bad ass pics!! Great work at catching the lighting in action!

[Reverend Cooper]

wow thats awesome shots

[Nix]

It takes so mauch damn patience to catch lightning, I give you props the pics are tits man. I personally dont have patience for a lot of things and trying to catch lightning in pics would be one.

Awesome!:headbang

[Goat Roper]

It takes so mauch damn patience to catch lightning, I give you props the pics are tits man. I personally dont have patience for a lot of things and trying to catch lightning in pics would be one.

Awesome!:headbang

That was 3 hours worth of work, two pictures out of 69 taken. It was mostly sheet lightning but there were a couple good bolts I missed due to setting up other shots and a couple that just weren't worth it.

That last bolt was actually taken on an exposure I had decided was my last since it was starting to rain. An extra 5 seconds and I would have missed it.

Thanks for the input guys, this is defintely a type of shot that takes some practice (and a ton pf patience).

[u_say_go]

incredible pictures!!! very cool, thanks for sharing!

[300pny]

OK, this was my first shot at lightning. The widest lense I had was my kit lense (18-55) so the shots could unquestionably been alot better with a sharper lense.

Had some time late last night to catch the big storms rolling into Milwaukee. I went to my work a couple miles away and went to the top of the parking structure. The trees were tough to deal with since they were lit up like christmas trees from the contruction of a new building on site.

I was going for the long of bolts as they came in and with the distance and the rain around them, they were gold in color which gave the clouds a gold color as they flashed. I had to kick the f-stop up to about a 5 I believe to get this all.

http://www.webtrendsguy.com/photobook/data/media/21/0338.jpg

Then, out of frickin' no where this thing pops right in front of me while I was shooting behind it. With a 11-13 f-stop this would have been a great shot but it saturated on 5. I shot it in RAW so I dropped the exposure in CS3 and low and behold at least SOME detail is in there.

BTW, it scared the shit out of me.

http://www.webtrendsguy.com/photobook/data/media/21/0340.jpg

Anyway, the number one lesson I learned is to be prepared for damn near anything and once that storm gets close stop going for the far off shots :thumbsup


That second one work well as desktop wallpaper.

[Goat Roper]

That second one work well as desktop wallpaper.

Here is a bigger version if you have a larger resolution: http://www.webtrendsguy.com/images/0340.jpg

[hrsp]

WOW those pics are GREAT!!!!!!the sky color in both are sweet

[Reverend Cooper]

wow that many pix for just 2 keepers holy cow

[300pny]

Here is a bigger version if you have a larger resolution: http://www.webtrendsguy.com/images/0340.jpg

Sweet thanks

[SSScottSS]

Very nice shots!!!!! I'm impressed

[Goat Roper]

wow that many pix for just 2 keepers holy cow


I am also a picky bastard, accounts for some of it.

Alot of shooting lightning is simply opening up the shutter for a period of time and hoping something happens during that time frame.

You end up with ALOT of pictures of clouds doing nothing.

[scaleracer]

those pictures are awesome! thanks for sharing those :thumbsup

[redpony06]

Awesome pictures, I have always tried to take pictures of lightening but got nothing! Good job though!!! :)

[SmokinRAM114]

thats cool looking! the first one is kinda leary looking