Leyburn Storm
Jun, 2015Views
320
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Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
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Superb Composition
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I was in the middle of cooking dinner one day when the whole kitchen lit up with an amazing array of colours. Grabbing my camera, I ran down the back yard to the fence, and captured this stunning 16-image panorama.Time
It was right on sunset, just as a small afternoon storm was rolling past.Lighting
The lighting from the sun breaking over the stormclouds was too incredible to pass up photographing, I was just lucky Nature decided to put on such an incredible show.Equipment
This was shot with my Nikon D7100, and Sigma 70-300mm lens.Inspiration
The inspiration for this image was the incredible colours lighting up my house as the sun broke through the stormclouds. It was the colours that grabbed my attention and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture them. When I got outside and saw the amazing sky reflected so perfectly in the still river water, and the storm still on the horizon, it took my breath away.Editing
I shot this as 16 individual raw images, and after initial raw processing in photoshop, did simple levels adjustments to ensure all images matched, and some dodge and burn as well as correcting for some blown highlights, and stitched the images together into this panorama. Making sure the individual images were matched for stitching was the hardest part, especially as I was at the time working with a computer with just 2gb RAM after an unfortunate crash of my main editing computer!In my camera bag
Usually I have my two Canon 7D's, and my 1DX. I have limited my lenses these days, carrying usually just my 70-200mm f/2.8, a 28-90mm Canon, and an 11-18mm Tamron. Alongside that, there's always plenty of snacks, and usually a few dozen memory cards and batteries too! Definitely always sunscreen and mozzie-spray too, especially here in Australia.Feedback
Take the chance when it jumps at you and don't be afraid of screwing up the shot. Sometimes you have the opportunity to be prepared and set up for your shot, and sometimes it smacks you in the face when you're unprepared and busy. I could have stayed inside cooking dinner because I wasn't ready for the shot, but I chose to turn off the food for 5 minutes and see what had caused the amazing colours that danced in my kitchen. I had no idea if I'd see and capture anything good, or just waste 5 minutes of my time and end up with horrible photos that were unusable, but that's part of the joy of photography. Don't be afraid to just wing it sometimes. Dinner will still be there when you come back, but you may never see another sunset like that one.
