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Arizona Monsoon, lightning over grain silos
Arizona Monsoon, lightning over grain silos
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Aug, 2012Views
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Summer 2020
Contest Finalist in Energy Photo Contest
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PRO
Coomanator
September 13, 2012
Amazing capture. Added to my favorites. Congratulations on the feature...
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desertpagan
September 29, 2012
A stunning image! Awesome capture of the lightning and the sky is beautiful! Congrats!
FrankSomma
October 07, 2012
Wow, that must have been a awesome experience. It's an awesome image that's for sure!
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billydonald
May 25, 2014
Now I know how hard it is to take this shot as I have been trying it for years You have lots of great comments for a outstanding image.
Now this is a great image BUT it could be better just by croping take off all the blan right hand side that has no interesting parts and a little off the bottom. try it with two sheets of paper, it makes a far stronger image still keeping everything on the thirds , don't clip off the finger of lightning though. I know that it is hard wondering where the strike is going to next and therefor having to take a "big" picture But you have to be willing to crop sometimes.
Please remember that this is only my view. Love it Bill
Now this is a great image BUT it could be better just by croping take off all the blan right hand side that has no interesting parts and a little off the bottom. try it with two sheets of paper, it makes a far stronger image still keeping everything on the thirds , don't clip off the finger of lightning though. I know that it is hard wondering where the strike is going to next and therefor having to take a "big" picture But you have to be willing to crop sometimes.
Please remember that this is only my view. Love it Bill
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photograph was taken in Gilbert, Arizona,USA, just south of Elliot Rd on Higly Rd. About a half mile from my home.Time
The shot was take at 10:16pm Arizona TimeLighting
It was dark, so I thought I might use one of natures biggest off camera flashes. :) I am often asked how I caught the lightning? The trick to lightning, like fireworks, is to expose for everything else in the photograph and be at a location where lightning is striking about every 14 to 24 seconds. I spent an 1hour and 45 minuets and shot 143 shots at different exposures working on getting several that I felt would be good. This one was the best because it was right over the silos. The exposure time was 11 sec at F/4.5 on at 18mm.Equipment
The first major equipment for shooting in a lightning storm is to insulate you and your equipment. I parked and stayed inside the vehicle. I have a carbon fiber tripod with a mag head on it. The camera I used for this shot is a Canon 60D, when I bought that camera I figured on using it for rodeo photography, and yet I still use it for night shots along with most of my scenic photography.Inspiration
Living in Arizona, you get to see Monsoon Storms in August and September. I thought with the silos lit the way they are and having the town surrounding a piece of or cities history as an agricultural town, the storm / lightning combination might speak to many people. It has been really cool to find out how many people have either had their first kiss or gotten engaged on the top of those silos.Editing
I shot it in RAW, so I did run it through Lightroom in order to sharpen it and removed as much noise as needed. I tried a couple of different looks, the other was with Tungsten. It took out all of the magenta that came from the ambient light of the city. You can see them side by side on my Viewbug page, just for reference.In my camera bag
The 60D, a 50mm canon lens, a 11mm-16mm Tokina Wide Angle and the 18mm-200 Canon zoom. I also carry a flash and both manual and electronic cable releases. Just picked up the Trigger Trap system a couple of months ago.Feedback
When it comes to weather shots...Your safety is first. I have done some stupid things to get "the shot" your life is not worth it, please don't try unless you can do it safely. In this shot, I was in my vehicle, the tripod wrapped around the entire front of it and me, camera mounted, with a manual cable release, the camera was set to bulb. The window open opposite of the wind and rain. "protect your equipment". And then I spent the time to get the exposure of the silos without lightning. Then it became a matter of patience. In this case, I knew off my test shots I needed and exposure of between 8 and 16 seconds. Then you "WAIT FOR THE LIGHTNING TO STRIKE". Thank you, Jim Moon
