The-Adventure-Woofpack

Wanterbadgery (15)

NIKON D810

settings

Aperture f/7.1 ISO 800 Shutter 30/1 Focal Length 140/10

upload_date

Dec, 2020

Views

178

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Awards

Winter Award 2020

Peer Award

Superb Composition

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken in a small outback rural community called Wantabadgery, located just outside of Wagga Wagga in NSW. This is one of the first stops we have been on in our Gap Year through Australia, where I hope to get many more photos like this!

Time

This image was late at night, at 10:35pm. I had seen this storm rolling in from Wagga Wagga - it seemed to take a lifetime to get there, as I had driven just in front of it at 8pm after an evening expedition of shooting with my two kelpies! I didn't feel like getting my kit out for this photo, it had been a long day of shooting as it was, but I am so glad that I did!

Lighting

There is no off camera lighting for this one. I hadn't shot lightning in for as long as I could remember (I literally think it had been 10 years since I had set out to get a lightning shot) so I was mostly focused on having my camera settings as best I could for this shot. I wanted a long exposure to have a better chance of capturing the lightning, but I also wanted the lowest ISO I could get away with for better quality. I was happy to have achieved this on 30seconds with ISO 800. One thing that was hard was that the lightning get moving around in my field of vision in a 180 degree pattern. I had to take a chance on getting the lightning in this specific spot. It was also hard to get rods of lightning, as the timing had to be perfect, the camera position had to be spot on and the most important one was that the lightning was in front of the clouds. I have many shots of beautifully lit up clouds; this was the only rod I got on camera.

Equipment

This was taken on my Nikon D810, with my Sigma Art f2.8 14mm-24mm lens and my trusty Manfrotto tripod.

Inspiration

My Gap Year across Australia is a blog to document my journey with my husband and my kelpies. I want to find myself artistically again and I want to do our Australian landscape justice. I want to show the diversity that our country has, so I was inspired to shoot this because the wild storms out in the bush had been a constant highlight in the few short weeks we had been out west. This was a great opportunity to showcase the magnificent storm, and it was even better that there are camper vans in the image to show the vastness of the landscape and just how close those lightning strikes were coming to us. Being close to a metal shelter (not in it) I was very mindful about my safety as well. I think the thrill of a storm is always fun to shoot too; it's beautiful to watch, but it is also very humbling to know that Mother Nature is in control.

Editing

Yes, I always tweak my landscape images. I usually make adjustments in Raw, then finalise in Photoshop, however I did the post-processing on this in Lightroom as I am completing a Diploma of Photo Imaging and Lightroom is the program of choice for the creators. I made adjustments to the blacks, whites, shadows, highlights and a slight adjustment on dehaze and sharpness. The highlights and whites were important to bring down the brightness of the lightning to give it more definition; the unedited version shows the bolt, however there is a haze of light around it.

In my camera bag

I have a few bags; in my 4WD, I carry my studio kit (one studio light and two speedlites, with softboxes.) In a separate case, I carry all of my lenses, my camera, my batteries, memory cards and cleaning kit. These are obviously ridiculously heavy to carry, so when I'm "free-range" and out shooting, I take with me only what I need for the session. More often than not, I am carrying my D810, my 14-24mm lens for landscapes or 24-70mm or 24-105mm lenses for pet portraits and self portraits. When I'm shooting landscape, my Nisi filters come with me and my tripod is usually always with me. I also carry a spare memory card and also spare batteries. I have recently added an Arsenal system to my kit to help with focus stacking. I also like to tether to my laptop when I can.

Feedback

Stay safe! Getting the photo is not worth your safety, health and wellbeing. Be mindful of where you place yourself and be mindful that you may be a bit of a magnet for lightning if you're carrying metal. As tempting as it is, do not bring an umbrella. Your camera and lenses will get wet; I used to have waterproof soft cases for wet weather, but found them really hard to shoot with. I try to keep my camera out of the rain. With storms, you usually see them coming before the rain hits. That is what happened with this photo; the storm was about 20 minutes in front of the rain so I made sure I was ready to run for cover when the rain hit. Just get out there; the more times you're out exploring and shooting, the more times you're likely to get photos like this. Have fun and enjoy nature!

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Wanterbadgery (15)

Behind The Lens

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