Storm Chaser

[CapturingTheNight]

Hello all,

In addition to being an amateur astrophotographer I am also a bit of a storm chaser. So I still don't get any sleep when the weather is horrible ;) I thought I would share a few of my lightning pics, a storm panorama taken just last week and my one and only (so far) funnel cloud. Hope you like them.

Cheers
Greg

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[FlashDrive]

Good Shots Greg .... love a good storm..... then I gotta go on a search for the dog. :D

Flash :D

[h0ughy]

some nice work there. i like the pano

[Octane]

Greg,

That second image is just spectacular -- with the arcs of the stars pointing towards the storm going nuts.

And, goodness me, where did you take that battleship photograph? I can only hope for something like that to appear here. I did photograph one early last year, but, it was nothing compared to the majesty of that storm.

H

[jjjnettie]

Awesome images!

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much for the feedback Colin, David and JJJ :D I'm glad you like them.

[CapturingTheNight]

Hi H. Thank you so much for the great feedback. :D Yeah the lightning/star trail one is one of my favs and one of my more popular ones online (DeviantArt). I just wish I had a more robust tripod for that storm. The wind was insane at the time and you can see in the jaggerd nature of the star trails that my tripod at the time was being buffeted around. I now have a very solid and heavy one. By "battleship" I assume you mean the storm in the pano? That was shot from my back deck at my house (same location and direction as star trail one) which is on a rural property between Wagga Wagga and Albury. The storm had passed through and the setting sun started to peak through gaps in the clouds behind me, lighting up portions of the storm structure. I hope you get a really photogenic storm like that one soon.
Cheers Greg

[spacezebra]

Brilliant captures Greg. Im a huge fan of the Storm Chasers in the states!

Cheers Petra d.

[CapturingTheNight]

Aren't we all Petra?? :D I love all those shows. It's a bucket list item of mine to get over there for a season of proper storm chasing. Thank you so much for the great feedback.

[iceman]

Stunning. #4 is a killer!

[spacezebra]

Hi Greg

I would love to organise a trip over, love to see the Dominator up close!




Sorry a tad of topic!

Cheers Petra d.

[Paddy]

Great photos Greg.

[bartman]

Great Shots Greg!
I'm hanging out to get a good shot of a lightning bolt myself!
Cheers
Bartman

[Ric]

Wonderful shots Greg.

Looks like there was some wild & woolly weather down your way.

[suma126]

brilliant shots love 2 and 4:thumbsup:

[PCH]

Hi Greg,

wow! - all those shots are terrifc, but as others have said, the pano is spectacular and the detail in pic 2 with the star trails is also fantastic.

Would you mind sharing your settings for the star trails pics, including how long the shtter was open for?

All the best :thumbsup:

Edit - wow, I just read that you took the pano ( #4 ) from your decking. Jeez, weren't you scared the world was coming to an end or something, - the colouring has a sort of armageddon look to it don't you think?

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much for all the great feedback everyone :D I'm glad you like them. I hope you get a chance to nab a bolt one day Bartman but please remember the number one rule in lightning photography- Make sure you stay safe.

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much for the great feedback Paul :D The star trail isn't a single exposure. It was stacked in "Startrails" http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html It is a combination of thirty 30 second exposures for a total elapsed time of 15 minutes. To get the lightning AND the stars to show up in the individual frames took a lot of messing about with camera settings. Luckily I had such an active and not moving fast storm to play around with. The ISO was 400 and the aperture was 6.3 at 10mm focal length. All storms are different and it depends on how close you are to the lightning and what lens you are using, as to what settings you need. As a rough guide I generally start out at ISO 100-200, aperture around 9 and shutter speed 15-30 seconds, and adjust from there. I just shoot frames continuously. On most storms for every lightning strike I get about 50 blank frames (got to love digital), but on this storm I was getting at lest two strikes each frame :D
Yeah the storm in the pano was certainly impressive. It had actually passed through at the time of shooting this so I wasn't in fear at all. Just in awe of the beauty of it. The colours are all true to life. They are caused by the setting sun poking through gaps in the clouds behind me.

[bartman]

Understood:thumbsup:.
I've done a little reading on Lightning Photography and the safety associated with it:D.
Cheers
Bartman

[naskies]

Beautiful! The star trails photo is my favourite too.

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you very much Dave :D I'm glad you like it.