Electrifying...Tuscon Storm Chasing
Chasing the August lightning in Tuscon Arizona. Freeway lights in the foreground. Nature putting on a show!
Chasing the August lightning in Tuscon Arizona. Freeway lights in the foreground. Nature putting on a show!
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Nov, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
We were storm chasing near Tucson Arizona during August. The Arizona desert experiences a lot of lightning storms during the summer months. This night, large storms were moving over the mountains to the north and east so we focused our attention in that direction. This was a single exposure capturing a massive discharge.Time
We had been driving around a bit looking for a good vantage point to observe the storms passing over the mountains. Around 9pm we found a good spot to the southeast of Tucson to set up and catch the lightning displays over the mountains north of us. We saw some fairly dramatic strikes. This was one of the more spectacular displays we saw that night. It was captured just before 10pm.Lighting
This was one of my first serious attempts to capture lightning. I wasn't using any special software or apps to click the shutter. I had the lens wide open at f/2.8 with a low ISO of 100 to allow me to open the shutter for long periods without overexposing the landscape. This single exposure was 40 seconds long. I closed the shutter the moment this single lightning strike ended and ended up with a great shot that didn't require a lot of post processing.Equipment
I used a Nikon D810 with a Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 lens, remote (cabled) shutter release and a tripod.Inspiration
I've been fascinated by weather all my life. Lightning is such a primeval force. Truly awe inspiring. I really became interested in photographing weather phenomena many years ago when I was an Air Force instructor pilot living in Oklahoma for several years. Spring was always my favorite season with the turbulent spring weather, immense thunderstorms, lightning displays and of course the occasional tornado. I was out storm chasing as often as my free time allowed and long before it became popularized on television. I always brought my camera along and often used my images when teaching a weather class for pilots. Back in the film days, we didn't have the advantage of instant feedback so I was never sure if my lightning shots would come out until they were developed. When it came to these kinds of shots, I admit I didn't really know what I was doing. I was basically taking my best guess. I got a few shots I would rate as "ok" but nothing really remarkable. After leaving Oklahoma, I didn't do a lot of weather photography for many years. While I never lost interest in the weather, my interest in photographing the sky and the weather was rekindled with the advent of digital photography and the increasingly capable cameras available.Editing
There is always some amount of post processing involved in weather shots although these lightning shots actually didn't require a lot. I used Lightroom for small adjustments to contrast, shadows and highlights. I white balanced the image and added a small amount of saturation to the sky and lightened the foreground very slightly. Afterword I cropped the image a small amount in Photoshop Elements to remove a bit of the darker featureless sky at the top of the image.In my camera bag
A couple of accessories I always make sure to pack are a remote shutter release, flashlight and headlamp with both a white and red lens and a tripod. Most of my lenses are zooms. I always have a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm. For wide angle shots especially Milky Way photography I often use an f/1.8 20mm lens and when I'm shooting wildlife I use a 150-600mm lens. For macro work I have a 105mm f/2.8 lens.Feedback
The first thing I'll say about lightning photography is be safe! If the lightning is flashing and you are hearing the thunder, it's not a good idea to be outside with camera and tripod. You don't need to be up close to get fabulous lightning images and there is always a new opportunity around the corner so don't take chances. Given that, I would say just get out there and do it! Almost all of my lightning photography has been done at night. You don't need fancy equipment or lightning apps actuating the shutter to catch the lightning although there are helpful apps like "Lightning Strike" to tell you where lightning in your local area is occurring. One of the best techniques I've seen and practiced is, from a safe distance, set up your camera in bulb mode with a low ISO that will allow you to hold the shutter open for extended periods without overexposing. At an ISO like 100 you also get a clean image. Make sure your focus is correct and once that's done, disable autofocus. Hold the lens open for as long as a minute at a time or until the lightning flash, whichever occurs first then close the shutter. If you held the shutter open for a minute or so without a lightning strike, close the shutter and take a quick look at the result to see if the frame is good, you don't want any excessive light sources in frame. You're also checking to see if you need to close the shutter sooner or can hold it open longer. In any event, I would not recommend continuing to hold the shutter open after a lightning strike. The flash is typically so bright it lights up the sky and often some of the landscape. If you continue to hold the shutter open after a strike, you risk overexposing and washing out the colors of the areas lit up by the lightning. When the time is up or the flash happens and you close the shutter, open it up again immediately. You'll likely get a lot of pictures with nothing in them but if the lightning is happening, you may catch some pretty cool shots. Also, since you'll likely be using a tripod, consider turning off your image stabilization especially if you're using non-native glass. I would also recommend, if you have any filters on your lens, remove them. The less glass you have between the lightning and the sensor, the better.
