Phoenix thunderstorms tonight, so I stopped on my way home from work and took MANY exposures to get six or eight that had lightning... Did I mention MANY exposures? I swear the storm knew when I closed the shutter, and fired off a couple bolts every time!


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefford_e/2738286564/" title="IMG_4105 -jpeg by Jefford_E, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3104/2738286564_5c58b90421_o.jpg" width="900" height="538" alt="IMG_4105 -jpeg" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefford_e/2737450455/" title="IMG_4096 -jpeg by Jefford_E, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3127/2737450455_c5faf604a3_o.jpg" width="900" height="698" alt="IMG_4096 -jpeg" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefford_e/2738286596/" title="IMG_4109 -jpeg by Jefford_E, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2738286596_9093da85d2_o.jpg" width="519" height="900" alt="IMG_4109 -jpeg" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefford_e/2737450477/" title="IMG_4099 -jpeg by Jefford_E, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3234/2737450477_a7391bfe1c_o.jpg" width="900" height="601" alt="IMG_4099 -jpeg" /></a>


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefford_e/2738286582/" title="IMG_4089 -jpeg by Jefford_E, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/2738286582_b64ba222f5_o.jpg" width="840" height="900" alt="IMG_4089 -jpeg" /></a>


C&C please. This is my first time with lighting so photo tips and PP tips welcome!

 

The last one is B+W because there was some weird light casting a very orange glow in the bottom portion of the frame, and I couldn't get rid of it in LR... Not sure if I like it in B+W...

 

Very nice, I like 3 and 4 where the parking lot lighting doesn't take as much away from the lightning. If two didn't have the lights it would be my favorite though.

I don't know if it was the some storm but I drove through one in Tucson tonight where I had about 10 feet of visibility. I love this part of summer.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I definitely need to find a better spot, but there really aren't any good high-up places in the North East valley that I can drive to to get above the street lights... These were from the third level of a parking garage.

Tucson ALWAYS gets better summer storms and lightning than Phoenix.

 

Nice. Good job getting the foreground in there as well to give it perspective and scale. I've always wanted to try this. What settings? Is this like shooting fireworks?

 

very nice shots...been waiting for my chance to get some lightning shots as well...it's hard, though, when it hasn't rained in almost a month and everyday is 105+...

his settings were:

manual exposure
exposure time: 13 seconds
aperture: f/8
ISO: 400
focal length: 70mm

 

I love lightening shots. Very cool

 

That's the best thing about having your camera with you.

Of course you would have to take many shots, very hard to capture. With film you could leave the shutter open for lond periods of time to get shots like that.

 

Very cool, Stogie.

 

The first one is definitely my favorite. Along with the lighting itself, it looks like there is a white light shining through the top of the clouds (which I guess there is ) Kind of like the effect you see many times later in the afternoon when the sun starts to go down and its behind a cloud causing lots of 'rays' to shoot off.

Reminds me of that.


Cool shots stogie!

 

Nice shots!
(Ironically, I just posted a similar thread without seeing this...)

 

Amazing shots Stogie! If I had to pick I would choose #1 as my favorite.

Job well done

 

Great shots, stogie. I also have to pick #1. It's got great composition overall, but if you look just at the lightning, it looks like two people holding hands and running.

And, no. I'm not on drugs

 

Lol. It does look like that.

 

I see it too

 

great shots stogie
#1 is my favorite also

 

Thanks guys! Truthfully it was a lot like fishing. A lot of fun, and a challenge to "catch" one, although no beer... Hmmmm..

 

I was going to say the same thing about it looking like they're holding hands.

I like #1 the best also - very nice! I also really like the sweeping rain in #2.

 

I love storms like this. That looks awesome

 

Sweet shots

 

I like 1 and 3.. great job stogie.. thanks for sharing them.

 

great job, stogie!

 

awesome! lightning pics always amaze me.

 

Great shots! Pinnacle Peak works as a nice silhouette. Where exactly where you shooting? I want to say Alma School and Dynamite area but I'm not sure. A couple of weeks ago I tried to shoot a storm for 20min straight and didn't come up with much. Shooting lightning can be very rewarding and frustrating at the same time. But it sure is exciting to try.

 

Bug, I was on the top level of the parking structure next to Capital Grill at FLW and Scottsdale Rd, southeast corner. There is a two building business park right on the corner, and a parking structure for them. Good eye!

 

Awesome shots! Mine were too far away but it's fun stuff.

 

Ahhh OK that makes sense. That is the Scottsdale Princess right in front of you. I can't wait for the next batch of T-Storms. I wish we would get some smaller cells rolling through during a nice sunset.

 

OK, I missed the lighting tonight, but managed to grab a shot of the spot where someone tore open the storm...

 

great shots.

 

Wow amazing shots! I need to get me a tripid!

 

coool

 

Well, last night I learned an important lesson about trying to take pictures of lightning.

Photos should be taken of approaching or receding storms, but not attempted from WITHIN the storm itself.

Photographically, it was impossible to figure out where to aim the camera, since the lightning was all around me and above me. The widest I can go is 28mm on a 1.6 body, and I really needed a 10-22mm last night.

Personally I don't think it was the safest idea to be at the top of a parking garage wile lightning was hitting around and above me. There was incredible cloud to cloud lightning, and impressive cloud to ground, too, but a lot of it was REALLY close, and I got HAMMERED by the weather. Almost blown down by gusts, completely soaked through by driving rain, and after about 300 exposures, I had nothing to show for the effort. Not a single good frame. Sigh...


FYI: These work really well: http://www.amazon.com/Op-Tech-Rainsl.../dp/B000RALTSK

 

I've been meaning to grab one or two of those. Hoping to find locally. They want $2 more to ship than it cost. I fell blindly into that last week when I order a camera strap. Strap cost $17, I paid $17 for shipping. I hit fastbuy, so that set it up as my normal 2day ship from amazon.com, but it was shipped from Target, not amazon.com.

 

So I have this stupid question... When it's lighting and you guys are taking these shots is it raining? If yes, how do you protect your gear from getting wet?

 

Sometimes it's raining, although this usually means I am too close for good pics.

See link in my last post for a pretty cheap water protection solution from Op/Tech.

 

Thanks stogie! Looks like a Trojan magnum size might do the trick too

 

wow, those are great. Must have been a lot of work, but it looks like it paid off