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  #1  
Old 08-13-2009, 05:24 PM
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Buddy Thomason Buddy Thomason is offline
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Lightning! (no knife content)





These are from last week up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Although the storm was very intense with many powerful ground strikes, lots of wind and rain, I managed to find a relatively safe location from which to shoot.

I used a Canon 1D MKII, 24-70 L zoom at approximately 35 mm, ISO 100, BULB mode, manual release timed to capture multiple flashes, in-camera noise reduction and a tripod.

Shooting these in RAW file format is important because white balance must be corrected due to the long exposures. The usual approach of framing the picture, fiddling with various settings etc. isn't practical. I pre-set the aperture between F8 and F11 and focus at infinity. Sure I got a bit wet, as did the camera/lens/tripod - but I don't worry about weather much because the 1 series Canon bodies and the L series lenses have excellent weather seals throughout.

I was lucky to get some very powerful near-by ground strikes in rapid succession. One trick I've discovered is to release the shutter (terminate the exposure) the very instant a big strike occurs. The fine branching away from the main bolt is better preserved and the inevitable over-exposure is minimized. Regarding post-processing, little is required beyond cropping, white balance and additional noise reduction on occasion. The last thing I do to these in post-processing is use my sharpen brush at 2-4% in the 'lighten' mode applied to the lightning itself.


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Old 08-13-2009, 08:56 PM
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you could of gotten a great shot of the lightning in my living room night before last.

Had a direct hit on the house. Took out the brand new DSL modem, DSL filter, Satellite TV, and several telephone wires from the wall jack to the devices.
Lucky no fire and no other damage.

The DSL filter blew so hard that the small transformers in it were stringing wire across the living room. I happened to be sitting between the DSL filter and the modem.


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Old 08-14-2009, 05:22 AM
Wade Holloway Wade Holloway is offline
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Great pics Buddy, I have always loved those type of pics. Great job on the explanation too, hopefully that will help me capture a couple in the near future.

Dwight I bet you had to go clean up after that.
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Old 08-14-2009, 06:36 AM
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We had a mess, but it was over so quick I didn't have time to react that way.


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Old 08-14-2009, 10:48 AM
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Thanks for the cool screensaver Buddy!

Nice work!


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Old 08-14-2009, 02:51 PM
Ron Aggus Ron Aggus is offline
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Great pictures, Buddy. Were you by chance in the visitors center in Moraine Park?
I can't visualize any other safe place to get to get such shots at RMNP.


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Old 08-15-2009, 02:47 AM
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Glad you all liked these. Ron - I was on private property bordering the park (SE corner), just inside the door of a garage. I could hear and see the storm coming and that gave me time to get into position. I was shooting in and around the park for several days that week - beautiful weather, lots of flowers and a full moon too.





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Last edited by Buddy Thomason; 08-15-2009 at 09:29 PM.
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Old 08-16-2009, 06:57 PM
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A couple more lightning shots. I like these two.





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Old 08-19-2009, 12:10 PM
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Very impressive captures!


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Old 08-19-2009, 09:06 PM
Ron Aggus Ron Aggus is offline
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Thanks for the reply. Buddy. My wife and I have spent a lot of time in Rocky Mountain National Park
and I never get tired of seeing pictures from there. Haven't been there for a while now but hope to return this year.


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Old 08-24-2009, 06:55 PM
Barbara Turner Barbara Turner is offline
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Buddy, very nice lightning images. Good job capturing them. I always enjoy watching the lightning storms but haven't had a chance to try my hand at photographing them. Thanks for sharing, Barbara


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Old 08-25-2009, 01:19 PM
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There's one that looks like you photographed your GPS !
Now that you've done a great job with those how about photos of ball lightning and jets and sprites ??
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