Lightning over Brisbane, 17 Nov 09

[StephenM]

Hi all,

Here's a shot taken from my deck this evening, as the storm was rolling through. Lots of lightning around while we were having dinner, but I still was able to catch the tail-end of the storm after putting the kids to bed. I think this is my best lightning capture to date - hopefully there will be plenty more over the summer!

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Lumen Miner]

Cracker of a shot!! Fantastic details there mate!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Crazy how it is arcing, towards you like that. Especially the strike on the right.

[lacad01]

Awesome shot Stephen, excellent :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

That's a great shot Stephen, I'm glad someone was out imaging it.

There were some absolute crackers (no pun intended) up here, but I was out driving in it and missed the chance. I had just come down the Obi Obi range (Mapleton to Kenilworth) and was driving through a long stretch where the hills were fairly low and one bolt started to my left in the south and went all the way around to the west and continues round to over my right shoulder to the north east. And it was only one of the best light shows we've had here for a while.

[rastis95]

Great shot Stephen,
Ive been waiting for a good storm to roll over home to try and capture some strikes. Quick question how do you go for focus, im assuming you take some trial shots of the clouds ? :question:

Cheers
Scott :D

[Esseth]

Thats awesome, i got a few shots but none anywhere close to that. they were not striking the ground where i was they were cloud to cloud.

[troypiggo]

Spectacular. I was on the road driving around in it, but didn't have camera with me to take advantage. Glad someone made the most of it. Well done.

[astro_south]

Nice shot Stephen :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Nice capture Stephen – we just stayed indoors watching the show from the lounge windows.

One particularly charged event completely filled the windows and room with blinding white light, followed immediately by an awesome crack that almost deafened us as the thunder clap appeared to burst right overhead.

Cheers

Dennis

[StephenM]

Thanks very much guys! It was a great display, and I think I was lucky to have captured this considering that it was almost over by the time I had the camera set up.



I just set the focus to infinity, Scott.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Liz]

Great image Stephen!!

[Ric]

Definitely a ripper Stephen.

you've captured that one perfectly.

Top stuff

[StephenM]

Thanks Liz and Ric!

Here's another version of the image, with the foreground lights cropped out and some curves adjustment to reduce the brightness of the background cloud. I think this one is better.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Ric]

I agree Stephen, the later version really jumps out at you.

Cheers

[hotspur]

Outstanding photo,Stephen-really ,thats well done!

It was most unusual lighting,i called it 'heat lighting', i am sure

it was different to other lighting,there was no 'flash' lighting,or

very little.the more regular 'fork lighting' was different in that it has

more thicker lighting,and is accompanied by lots more 'flash' lighting,

I also noticed that this lighting was coming out of the sky differently.

Stephens' photo has picked this up well,look to the right,and its

all twisted up on it-self,sort off like where it starts,i noticed this

on nearly all burst,Did others noticed these observations?

What exif Stephen?

I am glad someone got a corker photo of this.

You should send some of your pics to "Courier-Mail" Stephen

Cheers Chris

[StephenM]

Thanks again Ric.




Thanks Chris!

For most of the storm (while we were having dinner) there seemed to be simpler (i.e. single) cloud-to-ground strikes fairly frequently. This shot was taken right at the end of the storm (in Brisbane) and perhaps the conditions at that time were right for more complex strikes? That might have been what you observed further north.

This was a single 15 second exposure at 18mm, f/3.5, with sensitivity set on 200iso. I also had a polarizing filter on the lens (just because I'd forgotten to take it off in the rush to set up :P)

Cheers,
Stephen

[hotspur]

Thanks Stephen.

I looked up the weather book,it appears that there was a lot

of cloud to cloud lighting that nite.

I think your efforts paid of well,i thought someone could get a good

shot like that,because of the lack of 'sheet lighting'

When i have done lighting shots,they have not turned out like yours

as washed out by sheet lighting.

Anyway,well done on a very fine piece of work.

cheers C