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Enlightened Approach
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Enlightened Approach



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Shot in 2014 towards the west side end of the Catalina mountains near Tucson, AZ

Shot in 2014 towards the west side end of the Catalina mountains near Tucson, AZ
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upload_dateNov, 2016

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3 Comments |
BrunoHeeb PRO
 
BrunoHeeb January 21, 2017
amazing shot
Vadervideo Platinum
 
Vadervideo January 21, 2017
Thanks. I am lucky to have such a "backyard" for about 4 months of the summer every year. :)
one7studios PRO
 
one7studios September 20, 2018
Nice shot! I just started a monsoon challenge. You should enter! https:// viewbug.com/challenge/monsoon-photo-challenge-by-one7studios/gallery

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Tags

#lightning #monsoon #sunset #strikes #power #beautiful #dramatic
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Behind The Lens

Location

This was taken at sunset during a freak and sudden monsoon storm on the east side of Tucson, Arizona

Time

It was a perfect sunset moment when all of a sudden clouds built up and started sparking viciously. This happens on rare occasions during our monsoon season, but very rarely in such drastic buildup speed. Particularly when the ground is no longer hot due to the sun setting.

Lighting

It's dangerous to shoot lightning if one doesn't understand the physics. This particular stack of photos was actually very precarious on the last strike. Understand that when using a wide angle lens, objects are much closer than they appear.

Equipment

This was shot with a Canon 6d with a Sigma 20mm lens and intervalometer set to 5 seconds on a tripod. Then composed as a stack in Photoshop. Even the individual shots were unbelievably gorgeous. This entire process all happened with about 20 minutes.

Inspiration

I have been chasing monsoon storms for several years and actually film lightning for the purpose of motion picture time lapse. Much of my footage has been used on programs from National Geographic, Discovery, The Weather Channel (naturally) and even Ancient Aliens. During the monsoon season I am always getting inspired by nature's fury.

Editing

In this particular case, it is a stack of about 7 photos using Photoshop. Each individual photo is an art piece in its own right. But for fine art purposes I just couldn't resist.

In my camera bag

I carry both DSLR's and 4K video cameras, always. One of the video cameras also can shoot at extreme high frame rates as well for the purpose of slow motion video capture. Watching a lightning bolt be created is an awesome visual.

Feedback

Be safe and sane. Lightning is very unpredictable in any case. Typically I try to stay as far away as possible or shoot from within a "Faraday" cage type of environment. A car for example is good protection provided you are inside it. It is of course not wise to have a tall tripod standing in the open during such events as this can increase the chances of a strike grounding out through it. Carbon fiber won't be much better as lightning tends to do whatever it wants. Common sense, understanding how to read weather radar and most of all, how to read clouds really helps. In simple terms, starting at dusk to night, try to keep the F-stop at F8 and get as long of exposure as possible depending on the frequency of strikes. In most cases, I have never had to go beyond 5 seconds. If the environment still is too bright, use ND filters (stacked if necessary). Do not use variable ND filters as they will introduce a "light cross" usually in blue into the image. Virtually this light leak is impossible to remove where flat filters are consistent and can be stacked nicely without this happening. F8 will keep things sharp at most probable focal lengths to infinity as you really should not get close to any storm in any case.

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