storm clouds LakeMac 14112008

[h0ughy]

just having a play with a few images I captured tonight - the trusty ole pentax K10D;)


EDIT 18 November 2008: See post 61 for the new animation (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=381617&postcount=61)and here for the recalibrated image (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=50162)

[Rick Petrie]

Nice pic of the turbulence of the storm in the background with the tranquility of the lake in foreground.
Sort of like the lull before the storm.
Good one Dave:thumbsup:

[cookie8]

Wow!! The sky was really charged up. I wouldn't hang around for much longer in the open If I were you.:P

[Matty P]

Very nice capture Dave. It looks great.

:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

thanks Rick, it was a beautiful evening, but I quickly packed it in when the shelf of the thunderhead arrived almost overhead - the downdraft of the wind was getting very strong, and it had started to spit with rain:screwy:

LOL i had my umbrella up and was sitting in a metal chair dug into the ground by my weight, near two tall trees and a 120AH deep cycle battery powering the K10D....what could possibly go wrong. :whistle:
thanks Matt:thumbsup:

[Ian Robinson]

Yep it was a good storm while it lasted.

I wanted to go and lob a few big squid baits into the harbour tonight in the hope the jewies might be about for a few hours after tea , but heard that Sydney had copped it , and checked the weather radar for Newcastle, , so much for that ....

Maybe Sunday night ???

[CB]

Hi David,
Great shot.:eyepop:
How long did you keep shutter open for?
I took this pic with 32sec and then another 32sec ICNR (which you can't turn off) with the Pentax K20d, so I missed a lot of good shots.:sadeyes:

Chris

[Pierre]

Hi,

The general color and flashes underneath clouds create an apocalyptical context.

Well done !!

[iceman]

Awesome Dave! We got the storm here but not as bad as you guys.

[h0ughy]

40 seconds per shot - dropped the iso to 200 but kept the f2.8. love your shot, where did you set up, i was in the parking area near the little roundabout past the bridge at Warners bay

[Garyh]

Mike has said it already but that`s Awesome Dave!

[h0ughy]

thanks for that comment Pierre:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

thanks Mike

[h0ughy]

thanks Gary - did you get any storms or did they break up before they got to you?

[Octane]

David,

Mate, that is a corker!

Two things you need to do:

1. print, frame and hang in the lounge room;
2. send to your local news web site!

Beautiful work.

Question: are these stacked 40 second exposures?

Regards,
Humayun

[h0ughy]

yes they are - 51 of them infact.

I am looking at a different process to re do these using the raw images

[acropolite]

Thats a hell of a shot Dave, I like the silvery tones and the contradiction between the calm water foreground and the violence of the electrical storm.

[h0ughy]

yes i picked that location for two reasons - one the storm was heading that way and two - it is really shallow - and is always like a mirror when no breeze. Note when a southerly comes through it is a white water area with little waves:lol: thanks for the Comment Phil;

[Octane]

David,

What do you use to stack them? And, what's your trick to reaching perfect focus?

Regards,
Humayun

[h0ughy]

I used startrails.de and for the focus I used an auto focus on the lights on the far side of the lake then selected manual focus after that. I will have to cover t the raw DNG files the Pentax produces into tiffs then do the process over again

[RB]

That's an awesome shot David !!!
Well done, you're really producing some top stuff with the startrails proggy.
Send that photo in mate !

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:


You could have been a gelding called "Sunburnt Land" (http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/horseracing/top-racehorse-killed-by-lightning/2008/11/14/1226318907071.html)

:whistle: :lol:

[h0ughy]

you cant flog a dead horse:lol: thanks RB:thumbsup:

[Garyh]

We didn`t get anything at all! actually had clear sky to about 10pm with just a few wispy high clouds, but did see some flashes on the southern horizon..
I lovve photographing lightning...:), its been a while since we have had any good shows.
cheers

[jjjnettie]

:scared:
Wow.
You must have a death wish Dave, hanging around outside when you've got THAT heading towards you.
The photo is fantastic btw.

[CB]

David,
I was at spears point in a little car park looking south down the lake.
Should have taken my film camera as well.

Chris

[h0ughy]

LOL only death wish is asking for an observatory:rofl:

[h0ughy]

ah yes i know the one - just off the road, elevated right on the cycleway:thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Fantastic image David!

[sheeny]

Superb, Dave!

The same band pf storms came over here. I saw one great lightning bolt over the neighbours house so I got the camera set up with ND filters on (it was late arvo) but there was no more visible lightning :sadeyes:.

Al.

[h0ughy]

thanks guys

[h0ughy]

OK i have had a play with the converted raw files (DNG to tiff to jpeg for here). this seems a little better than just playing with the jpegs from scratch. video included;)

[Octane]

David,

Again, just fantastic.

Regards,
Humayun

[h0ughy]

Thanks Humayan. I was contemplating doing a hdr on this but i fear that i dont have the right images to use.:shrug:i think the movement of the cloud and lightning might be too much for the process

[Octane]

Give it a go! Because the sky appears to be covered throughout the entire shoot, it /might/ just turn out OK.

One thing, though, were all your exposures 40 seconds long? My understanding is that there has to be variation between exposures for HDR to actually work properly.

Regards,
Humayun

[iceman]

Brilliant, Dave. The movie is awesome. Shows how you chickened out just before it reached you :lol:

[h0ughy]

i think you are correct - i did give it a go and it looked horrible:rofl:

[h0ughy]

yes it certainly does - the downdraft was very strong and it started to spit rain - thought it a good time to run.......:whistle:

[RB]

I really like the new version Dave and the anim too.
Awesome mate.

:thumbsup:

[Garyh]

Beaut repro and movie Dave!
One of the nicest lightning pictures I have seen for a long time! You must print this one for the wall.
cheers Gary

[h0ughy]

LOL I was taken back a bit by the new avitar Rb - thought it was another bolt LOL. Thanks , the animation does loose out by being horribly squished to put on the site but you do get the general impression and the shelf that was coming towards me:scared:

[h0ughy]

yeah might get this one done but what is a tasteful size?

[Octane]

1.5m x 1m :)

Regards,
Humayun

[RB]

If you had used an Olympus you could've printed one up at Four-Thirds lifesize. :P

[Phil]

Stunning shots Houghy. Look nice on the wall. Love lightning shots.
Phil

[h0ughy]

You saying i havent enough megapixels.......:P

i might have to start to refer to you as the Governor (aka ARNIE)

[h0ughy]

thanks Phil - looks like you might get your with this evening - looks like storms up your way - i know southern qld has got storms at the moment:scared:

[Bassnut]

Wow, top work David, most enjoyable, almost looks processed in HDR.

[h0ughy]

Thanks Fred - no way i tried a hdr process and it looked horrible:sadeyes:

[gary]

Hi David,

Great picture and hope you weren't flying a kite at the time with the other hand! :)

Best Regards

Gary

[multiweb]

Cool! :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

no, sitting in a metal chair between two tall trees:whistle:

[madwayne]

Great capture David and congrats on the photo of the week on here too.

Well done.

Wayne

[bluescope]

Lucky you didn't get zapped Dave ....

I love electrical storms the air is so charged and envigorating ....

Nice work mate !

:thumbsup:

[AlexN]

HOLY CRAP DUDE!!!

Fantastic image! the water color and reflections are brilliant! oh, and the lightning!

[GrahamL]

:thumbsup:... Just caught the shot on the news up north dave .. they even got your name in there as well ..I was looking at it thinking ..I've seen that before somewhere:P

[RB]

Congrats on 'Image of the Week', Houghmiester.......:)

[Martin Pugh]

Great shot David

really very powerful!

cheers
Martin

[h0ughy]

thanks Wayne

i really love storm season

thanks Alex glad you enjoyed it

Yeah it was great to see it on the news - looked very different to on the laptop. Family niggled me with it though;)

Why thank you RB. Mike was being kind to photon challenged and gave me a turn.


Thanks Martin, i appreciate your comments. D

[Deeno]

Sensational!!!
:2thumbs::2thumbs::2thumbs:

[h0ughy]

thanks Deeno

[h0ughy]

OK i have tweeked the animation and now have a better one upload this and see what you think 36 minutes crammed into a few seconds.

[cookie8]

Sensational!!:eyepop:

[h0ughy]

thanks Vincent

[jjjnettie]

The new animation is great Dave.
You got so much action happening in it. You have to play it over and over to catch it all.

[Octane]

David,

Oh, man.

I was listening to Klaus Schulze's 1977 masterpiece Stardancer II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MHKJ9bBJDY&fmt=18) and had your animation on loop.

What a feeling!

Regards,
Humayun

[h0ughy]

if you watch the right side you can see the old thunderstorm dissipate and the new one reform over the lake (and to some extent on the left as well)

[h0ughy]

:rofl: glad you get a buzz out of it H:thumbsup:

[Deeno]

Wow
What a result.
facinating animation

[h0ughy]

Thanks Deeno, I have had a good run with this being the image of last week!

[Smirnoff]

h0ughy... the pic in your first post is AMAZING!!!

[Kevnool]

Dave the First pic of your post is fantastic and i love it ,can i have your permission to have a copy of it?

Also the animation is great showing how fantastic mother nature is.
Cheers Kev.

[h0ughy]

sure