Pampa
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
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Jul, 2014Views
2017
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Awards
Featured
Contest Finalist in Photographer Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 7
Peer Award
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
All Star
Outstanding Creativity
Great Find
Jaw Dropping
One Of A Kind
Genius
Exceptional Contrast
Virtuoso
Top Ranks
Top 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
PRO+
Father-Of-Thor
September 22, 2014
Wow! How much time you invest in order to be in the "right place at the right time" for this image?
PRO+
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was just north of Pampa, Texas, in 2002.Time
It was around 9:30pm.Lighting
As a lightning photo, the lighting was all about the bolts.Equipment
Olympus D40z (one of the first digital cameras out there). It was tripoded and the rest of the equipment was mother nature.Inspiration
I think the storm itself served as ample inspiration. What an amazing thing to experience. I had been chasing storms about 12 years at that time, and this was such an amazing culmination of experience and luck. I was obviously delighted to get to see this storm crank out bolts like this for about 15 minutes before it became enmeshed in low-level clouds.Editing
No--this is it.In my camera bag
Canon 2Ti, batteries and chargers, 25-200mm Sigma lens and a spare 70-200mm lens. Polarizing and UV filters. And a tripod with weight.Feedback
Good lightning photography warrants a good understanding of where to find lightning in a storm (the updraft/downdraft interface is the most active), how to frame where you *think* a bolt will drop while being in complete darkness, and--hardest of all--how to adjust your manual focus to just short of infinity (since ambient temperatures make the exact focal length challenging). To capture bolts like this, you need to be away from any precipitation--rain obscures the quality of the lightning bolt--it's even better if there is *no* precipitation between you and the bolts (which requires understanding the physiology and anatomy of storms). You can purchase lightning sensors, but I don't use these. I experiment with the manual setting, and wait until complete darkness, opting for a balance between aperture and shutter speed. When lightning is abundant, shorter shutter speeds are necessary--this one was a 6-second shutter. Many of my lightning photos range from 20-60 seconds usually. Prepare to shoot a lot of blank shots (in the old days of print film, I could go through 2-3 rolls of film without any lightning captures ;)). Shoot with as low an ISO as you can (this one was ASA 100). Keep in mind that you may need to increase the ISO if lightning is fainter, at the expense of a lot of pixelation. And then ask for luck--that's what made this shot a once-in-a-lifetime bolt.
