There was a thunderstorm tonight...

[Drew Ott]

Ask and you shall receive: http://www.mikkowilson.com/photos/Lightning03_1280x1024.jpg

Slightly different CC on this one, less red. Also, your goofy size destroyed my framing. :kali:


- Mikko

Thanks man.

Your picture is now my desktop wallpaper. :thumbup:

 

[cecil995]

great shots....and very brave to be out in the storm like that

 

[Eastside Parkway]

How did you do it anyway?

 

[Drew Ott]

How did you do it anyway?

I believe using long exposures are the key to shooting lightning.

I'll let Mikko give you the specifics.

 

[Kirk Gillock]

Long exposures and A LOT of luck. lol

 

[mikkowilson]

[...] very brave to be out in the storm like that

More like stupid.
We live on a hill, and I was standing on the roof. Sure there are trees and other tall things around to help my odds, but it was pretty stupid really.

The same thunderstorm hit an army tent that night, put 5 guys in the hospital. I think they are ok now.

How did you do it anyway?

Said idiot (myself) took my Canon Digital Rebel XT and slapped it on my compact Slik 550G tripod and set up on my roof looking out towards the approaching storm.
Camera was in manual mode; ISO 400, F-stop varied between 4.0 and 8.0 (I think higher F stop yielded better results). Shutter was in "Bulb" mode.

I used a canon RS60-E3 latching remote shutter release to trigger the camera.

I set focus manually to infinity and latched the shutter open with the remote. After each lightning flash (anytime the sky lit up) or after about 20 sec, whichever came first, I'd close the shutter and immediately open it for another exposure.

Then it was a case of waiting for a visible strike in the right direction.
I was up there for about 30mins and shot about 200 frames, to get the 4 successful ones I posted. Then it really started to rain and the storm moved on past.


- Mikko