Lightening strike
Lightening snakes through the clouds during a storm on the Palouse in Washington. The white spot in the photo is actually a "ball lightning", a rare ...
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Lightening snakes through the clouds during a storm on the Palouse in Washington. The white spot in the photo is actually a "ball lightning", a rare occurance to capture.
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Mar, 2014Views
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Tanda4bama
July 22, 2017
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/lightening-streaks-photo-challenge-by-tanda4bama
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Behind The Lens
Location
On the Palouse in eastern WashingtonTime
It was actually taken at night. We were experiencing a massive lightning storm just to the west of the ranch and I was standing in the aisleway of my barn.Lighting
As anyone knows, lightning is dangerous. I have had strikes within a 1/4 mile of me. There is no way of knowing when a strike might happen so the opportunity of one with alot of lightning action is seldom. However, a few things I have learned is that a fast moving storm during the summer is most likely to have the most lightning and lightning generally mostly occurs at the leading edge of a storm front. Knowing which direction the storm is coming from and to helps greatly. Recently I was caught in a very aggressive storm that had such a torrential down pour no way was I going to stop and take pictures, however, once I got out of the storm and safely up the road, I stopped to snap off a few pictures.Equipment
I have two Canon Rebel DSLRs. One of the originals which is a Canon Rebel XSi and a Canon Rebel T5i. I used the XSi for this shot. Being that I was standing in darkness, the sensor would not go off without light. I held the camera against me (no flash, no tripod) and pressed the shutter button keeping my finger on it the whole time (this can take a toll on your camera however). Once the strike happened, there was enough light from it that triggered the sensor and the picture was captured. I have tried numerous times to capture lightning with the Rebel T5i and it's designed to take pictures of nothing so to use it in a lightning storm, the storm needs to be pretty aggressive which makes it much more difficult to photograph.Inspiration
I have always been interested in taking that one shot that no one else gets, the challenge to see if I could capture it. I had no idea of what I actually captured until I post processed (the lightning strike coming through the upper layers of the clouds) and the real rarity is that "white spot" which I had no idea until years down the road in doing a speech on lightning that the white spot I left in is actually "ball lightning". I have always admired photographers who have captured beautiful lightning shots and it always made me wonder why this one shot has captured the attention of so many. During my study of different photos, it dawned on me that I saw other things in those photos whereas mine did not have it. One generally uses a lot of speed to capture lightning so daylight pictures will appear dark. Mine was taken in total darkness at night.Editing
Yes, I used a lot of contrast to get the lightning bolt to have definition. Then I played around with the hue just for a contrast of color. I actually also did this contrast in yellow which lends a lot of definition to the clouds.In my camera bag
I shoot mostly with the Canon Rebel T5i now. I like that it can take photos faster than the Canon Rebel XSi which for some reason is not holding a battery charge for very long. I have three lens in my bag which is a Canon 70-300, a Canon 85mm fixed and a Canon 18-135 which I used the most often due to how close I can get or it gives me a good distance. Since I do a lot of waterfall photography, I have a lens cover and several types of filters. Throw in a few extra batteries and SD cards, I'm good on the camera equipment. I do pack a tripod whenever possible and I keep some emergency things in the bag such a spare whistle (the sound of a whistle carries much farther than the human voice), emergency poncho, emergency blanket, a compass, a 8' piece of nylon string. I have two camera bags that I try to carry. One is a hip pack which leaves my arms free and the other is a back pack type, again allows my arms to stay free.Feedback
Use caution in lightning storms. Try to position yourself within a building and never stand out in the middle of a field with no protection. If you feel you absolutely must, then get down on the ground so you don't make yourself a human lightning rod. If possible, try to take a few shots as the storm approaches so that you can make any adjustments to speed. I recommend trying not to use a ISO of any more than 800 and even at that, you may have to work on denoising it some.
