Storms Anyone?

**kozzy** · 19 April 2008, 04:26 AM

I have eagerly entered the forum over the past several weeks shortly after some of these impressive storm complexes. I noticed this year there is s general lack of enthusiasm over storm pics. Well, dorky as I may be, can I beg for some sotrm pic postings in this area?

**SDORN** · 19 April 2008, 09:36 AM

I Took a few oif a busted tree in our our shopping center.

Won't post em for a while though, i am in the middle of a move right now.

**Justin Terveen** · 20 April 2008, 09:11 AM

hurr go.

these are the only two i've had the chance to edit from this last storm.. i'll continue to post'em here as the season progresses.

**kozzy** · 27 April 2008, 03:24 AM

Ninja you're the bomb....these are magnificent. I look forward to some more!

**jamesl** · 25 April 2008, 10:35 AM

I haven't been around much lately due to committments at work and such. I also haven't had much of a chance to get out and shoot. I did come downtown on Wednesday night to shoot the storm that went through, and got one good shot:

I shot this from the courts building parking garage on commerce. I was shooting at F10 at 100 ISO, and this thing was still blown out. It blinded me for a few seconds after that strike.

I also have video of that evening that I haven't processed yet.

James

**jamesl** · 25 April 2008, 12:22 PM

Hmm. Anyone else having problems seeing this picture? It seems to sometimes come up, and sometimes not. Trying to figure out if it is a problem with my hosting service.

UPDATE: Ahh, ok. My bad. I linked it out of a gallery that didn't have external linking enabled. Should be working now.

James

**tamtagon** · 25 April 2008, 12:33 PM

I havent been able to view it....

**RobertB** · 25 April 2008, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by jamesl

Hmm. Anyone else having problems seeing this picture? It seems to sometimes come up, and sometimes not. Trying to figure out if it is a problem with my hosting service.

James

I was only able to see it when I went directly to http://www.langfordphotography.com/p...07_w9oPB-M.jpg first. It's probably because your host doesn't allow external embedding. Awesome pic! I'll upload my own lightning pic shortly.

gc · 25 April 2008, 02:16 PM

Wow. I see it just fine.

**RobertB** · 25 April 2008, 05:29 PM

Here's mine. It's my first lightning shot ever! It's taken with an 8-second exposure, aperture set as small as possible at 6.1, and the original picture info says it's set to ISO 64, though all I set manually was the exposure and aperture. I really got lucky -- the flash struck right in the middle of the exposure time. I spent the next four seconds going, "did I really get that???"

I was showing my son how to do it. He'd have had better luck, except that he figured he could take a picture if he saw the flash and hit the button right away -- because *he* could still see the lightning after the stroke. I explained Persistence of Vision to him. I think he's going to be posting some awesome pix some day, because he really likes the things you can do with a digital camera. The other pic attached is some light-painting he did in a dark closet.

My dad told me long ago about his lightning pictures. I don't think I ever saw them, but he told me how he would go out to the lake on a stormy night, set up his camera, and hope for a nearby strike. And hope that it wasn't *too* nearby. I've developed film in a darkroom before, so I can imagine how frustrating it must have been to wait until you get back home before you know if even one frame worked. My pic is one of over 100 we took that night!

And film developing had its own problems. I got some awesome shots of my high school's ace basketball player making slam dunks. They developed great, and I was really looking forward to putting them in the school newspaper. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the part about *diluting* the acetic acid stop bath, and poured it straight. Everything looked fine until I went back after drying... it had curled into a tube like a six-foot-long cigarette, as brittle as cooled sugar syrup. Oops.

**SDORN** · 25 April 2008, 07:03 PM

Wow that first shot is awesome nice capture.

**Justin Terveen** · 28 April 2008, 01:01 PM

nice work robert. that's a crazy looking bolt...

Originally Posted by jamesl

I was shooting at F10 at 100 ISO, and this thing was still blown out....

straight 'finger of God' strike you've captured there, james... nice.

Originally Posted by txRNGr

Excellent shots Ninja...the clouds in that first photo look surreal.

Originally Posted by kozzy

Ninja you're the bomb....these are magnificent. I look forward to some more!

thanks you guys!

**jamesl** · 28 April 2008, 04:34 PM

Thanks for the comments all. I've also put together a video that I was shooting that night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVv9JUL97XQ

Music is Halcyon and On and On by Orbital.

James

**txRNGr** · 27 April 2008, 03:04 PM

Excellent shots Ninja...the clouds in that first photo look surreal.

**RobertB** · 28 April 2008, 10:57 AM

I merged two stormy threads, so my apologies if any of the references (like "Great shot in that xth pic!") no longer make sense.

**Sky Time** · 28 April 2008, 11:44 PM

how do you get lightning pictures?

**jamesl** · 29 April 2008, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by Sky Time

how do you get lightning pictures?

I'll pretty much echo what Justin already said. First off, a tripod and remote is a must. It also helps to have a good wide lens. A DSLR is nice as well, as there is usually not much delay between shooting frames.

As for actually shooting, the trickiest part is knowing where the storm is going to be so that you can optimize your chances of getting lightning in your scene. Then, the next thing is finding a safe, and most likely dry location to shoot from (parking garages work well). I like to try and bring interesting forground into my scenes. This can be buildings, the skyline, etc. The next thing is to expose for both the scene, and for the intensity of the lightning. If it's very faint, I will shot around F4 or so. If it's bright, then F8 to F10. Adjust the shutter speed accordingly so that your scene is exposed properly without any lightning in it. Many times I'll end up shooting around F8 and 8 seconds or so. Make sure your focus is good, as focussing at night can be difficult. Many times I'll use a bright building or object to lock focus on before putting the cam on the tripod. Finally, start shooting away and try to capture strikes. This is where luck comes in. However, if you've setup in a good spot you should get a few strikes in. I actually use an Intervalometer remote control. This allows me to automatically have the camera take the pics for me one after the other.

Here's probably my favorite shot from a few years back (2001). This was captured using the technique above:

Good luck!

James

Originally Posted by Ninjatune™

that's the jam! makes me wanna watch hackers...

Nice.

I actually pulled this version off of the Mortal Combat soundtrack. ha ha.

**Justin Terveen** · 29 April 2008, 04:56 AM

patience, persistence and a little bit'o'luck... its really just a matter of constantly exposing your frame. in other words, having the shutter open while the censor records for seconds at a time, over and over again, back to back until you capture something...

technically, its really no different than regular night photography, in terms of exposure times and other settings... the kicker with lightning is our inability to predict and react to something than occurs so randomly with such great speed.. the leading side of a strike can move up to 60,000 meters per second, while the stepped portion (fingering out from the main bolt) travels much slower by comparison. you simply can't react to something that quickly, so you do the next best thing and just have the camera recording before it strikes...

the trick is to forget about trying to react and simply concentrate on keeping that shutter open at every possible moment. the instant the camera finishes recording, you should be ready to press that button again, and again, and again.... eventually, a strike will occur during one of these shots...and that's it...... but mark my words, the instant you let your guard down and forget to release the shutter again, a monster will streak down from the heavens and obscenities will more than likely begin flying from your mouth... shoulda been focused and listening to the camera, which, admittedly can be very hard with all the excitement going on around you..

in a nutshell: set up shop with a remote (to prevent camera shake), tripod, lots of memory and even more patience. in a typical lightning session, i'll burn thru at least one battery and about 5 gigs of space... if i'm lucky, there'll be a handful of usable shots when its all said and done.

Music is Halcyon and On and On by Orbital.

that's the jam! makes me wanna watch hackers...

**nrrhgreg** · 29 April 2008, 06:11 PM

Yeah, it's all about getting lucky. This is the best one I've gotten. It's a few years old but I haven't been lucky enough to get a better one since then.

**SDORN** · 29 April 2008, 11:34 PM

Yep Justin and James nailed the explanation. Well said guy and great pix, I need to shoot some lighting pix myself.

**kozzy** · 03 May 2008, 04:16 AM

Scott your photos are amazing as well! All of these are great!

**jamesl** · 05 May 2008, 12:15 PM

I have another shot to share. A friend and I headed up into Central OK on May 2nd to hopefully chase a few storms around that area. We ended up chasing a small LP (low precipitation) supercell through Oklahoma City, and up to the north east. I managed to stop and shoot this of the storm:

This was the most beautiful storm I had ever witnessed. It was moving quite slowly to the north east, so we were able to stay with it for a while. When I found this green field of wheat, I knew it was time to stop and capture the above.

Technical Detials: Shot with my Canon 30D and 20mm prime lens. F16 and 1/60 second. In photoshop, I bracketted each shot +/- 1 EV using the original RAW image. I then created 3 seperate panos in Panorama Factory (one at -1 EV, 0 EV, and +1 EV). These three panos were merged into a tone mapped HDR using Photomatix Pro. Finally, pulled the image into photoshop to clean it up some.

James

**Justin Terveen** · 05 May 2008, 01:18 PM

Zoinks!

**Justin Terveen** · 05 May 2008, 01:29 PM

p.s. you might check out PTgui Pro 7... it'll stitch and merge hdr pano projects like butta...

you can also batch your individual LDR's into radiance files w/matix, then throw'em at PTgui for stitching afterward... its made the process much quicker, for me...

**jamesl** · 05 May 2008, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by Ninjatune™

p.s. you might check out PTgui Pro 7... it'll stitch and merge hdr pano projects like butta...

you can also batch your individual LDR's into radiance files w/matix, then throw'em at PTgui for stitching afterward... its made the process much quicker, for me...

Thanks man. I'll give it a try. I tried out ptgui long, long time ago in it's infancy, but I'm sure it has improved a ton since then.

James

**Justin Terveen** · 15 May 2008, 10:04 AM

some nice stuff last night... shame i couldn't frame a shot to save my life, but hey..

**SDORN** · 16 May 2008, 10:09 PM

Damn son. that framing is just fine awsome LIGHTNING MAN!!!! WELL DONE !!!!

**Justin Terveen** · 17 May 2008, 10:36 AM

thank you, sir.

uno mas

**Justin Terveen** · 29 June 2008, 03:16 PM

**kozzy** · 13 July 2008, 12:31 AM

When I posted this question, I nwever dreamed I would have such an outpouring of responses. Too bad we have had a virtually inactive Spring & Summer! These pics give me goosebumps guys! Fantastic!

**shaun3000** · 05 August 2008, 11:33 PM

Nice rainbow on the way home from work, today. The clouds, by the way, are from Tropical Storm Edouard.

**Justin Terveen** · 06 August 2008, 12:33 AM

that is so wild... i was JUST watching the athf episode where the team encounters a rainbow, of sorts, and i thought to myself... man, i sure would love to shoot a nice rainbow....and how i haven't seen one in forever --then low and behold, not but a few clicks later - rainbow...

**SDORN** · 06 August 2008, 01:04 AM

Yes I saw that same rainbow when I was shooting the DART rail line and some buildings at the Denton drive cuttoff and Maple I will see where that shot is.

**SDORN** · 06 August 2008, 01:18 AM

Found it The only shot I took and it didn't turn out half bad. Had to crop out the power lines

**TexasStar** · 06 August 2008, 11:57 AM

My rainbow was from a couple of weeks ago, but I just never seem to catch anything cool like this.

**Justin Terveen** · 01 September 2008, 12:22 PM

any weather junkies know what kind of potential gustav has for producing heavy lightning here in dfw?

**reignman** · 01 September 2008, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by Ninjatune™

any weather junkies know what kind of potential gustav has for producing heavy lightning here in dfw?

From NWS site... http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByS...cussion#AFDFWD

CURRENTLY LITTLE TO NO LIGHTNING ASSOCIATED
WITH GUSTAV CONVECTION.

Sorry to disappoint.

**Justin Terveen** · 01 September 2008, 09:02 PM

yeah.. i kinda figured.... thanks for the link---

great sunset anyway.. nice clouds moving in...

lotsa LA folks walking the city... street musicians here and there...

**kozzy** · 11 June 2009, 06:44 AM

I started this post at an earlier date with interest in general storm pics around the Metroplex. However, i wanted to resurface it in lieu of last night's storms. Anyone have their cameras out?

**jamesl** · 11 June 2009, 10:05 AM

Ninja was out, judging by his flickr account. Amazing stuff coming from him last night. I was out with a friend shooting up in Colin county. Wish I had been downtown before the heavy rains came. Around 2 am I went to a shooting spot down there, but the rain was just too heavy. Headed back up to Plano and shot amazing lightning for 3 hours more. Hopefully I'll have the pics up soon.

Those storms were a once in every few years event I think. The last time I saw something like that was in June of 2001.

James

**dfwcre8tive** · 11 June 2009, 01:41 PM

According to the DMN, a pump station in West Dallas lost power and cannot pump water into the Trinity. People are evacuating the surrounding neighborhoods.

**cowboyeagle05** · 11 June 2009, 02:59 PM

^And this is why we should be focusing on fixing the flood problem and not how to force a tollway through a flood zone.

Lightning struck the pump twice before it lost its primary power system and then a backup system failed. Technicians from Oncor and the city are working to restore the pump, but it is unknown when it will be back in service.

If you believe in signs from god that might be the one.

**dfwcre8tive** · 11 June 2009, 03:00 PM

**Tnekster** · 12 June 2009, 09:52 PM

Ominus pic, looks a little Independence Dayish.

**SDORN** · 13 June 2009, 12:07 AM

Man I hope Ninja caught what I caught today the lighting was off the charts I didn't see him today. Cityarts was the perfect canvas for Gods lighting. When City arts started Lighting was crappy with al the clouds. I had a diffucult time shooting a ballet a freind was in.
Right after her performance was over. The clouds in the west began to clean away expososing the setting sun. It was nothing I had ever seen in downtown in all my years of shooting. Here is what i got

**Mena** · 13 June 2009, 08:40 AM

^Beautiful! Love that church.

I managed to get a few shots last night.

**SDORN** · 13 June 2009, 10:27 AM

Nice shots you shoulda been at city arts It is happening down there.

**Mena** · 13 June 2009, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by SDORN

Nice shots you shoulda been at city arts It is happening down there.

I think we are heading over there today. Hope they have the misting fans going.......I just got back from walking our dog and it is hot, hot, hot already.