Lightning over Semapore Jetty

[Paul Haese]

On a phone call from Virgs yesterday I headed down to Semaphore to capture some lightning. I had planned on capturing from Windy Point with it being an elevated position but the notion of the beach and jetty was a good one for composition.

Despite getting very wet, as I just grabbed camera and no protective gear, I did get some nice shots. This one was the best of the day.

Click here for image.

Taken with lightning trigger and my D3 camera.

[astroron (Ron)]

Fortuitous but nice Paul
Cheers

[multiweb (Marc)]

One shot in a million. What a cracker! Love it.

PS: you could have framed it a bit more to the left though?

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Nice capture.

Whats the odds of getting framed lightning shot.

Thanks,

Justin.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys

Originally Posted by multiweb

PS: you could have framed it a bit more to the left though?

Yeah could have done that but I was sharing with two other guys in the same spot, and both are bigger then me.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Great compostion Paul, dig the contrast with the jetty, Top catch !

[kinetic (Steve)]

Fantastic shot and framing Paul.
Looks pretty damn fine as a monochrome too BTW

I had the DSLR all afternoon doing timed release shots until dark.
The first stormfront was awesome...missed all large hits due to
intervals between shutter releases

Then during the second front about 9:45pm got a lot of starburst
type sheet lightning shots but no clear strikes.

Home security video seemed to fare the best with its 15fps frame rate.
I have one of my four cameras with an all sky lens.
Quality not good enough to post though...maybe as a movie.

Steve

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Thanks guys



Yeah could have done that but I was sharing with two other guys in the same spot, and both are bigger then me.

Only joking. I was referring to the near impossible way to do what you did, get the lighning aligned with the jetty. That's plain freaky. Right place at the right time. Next time take big Mike with you. I'm sure he'd negotiate some space for you or relocate a few things around.

[hotspur (Chris)]

That's very good Paul,a high standard image there-I like viewing very much-even the bird just above lightning too!

If I may give one tiny comment-not a critisism,but the bark or sea weed or whatever it is on left hand side of jetty is just a tiny bit distracting-I thought it was a person walking up the beach,and half obscured by jetty support.Very easy to clone out.It just caught my eye.Regardless,it pretty perfect.

Is that a Greek lightning trigger you use?,that they are talking about on other threads? How do you set your settings for this style of photography? Do you dial up AV mode,select F stop and your choice of iso,and wait?

Thanks for view and info on questions-Cheers Chris

[gregbradley]

What a ripper image.

I like the composition with the wharf going out into the sea creating a nice perspective and a lightning bolt at the end of it.

Fabulous.

Greg.

[RobF (Rob)]

Yes, an amazing image. I'd be interested to hear a bit more about the "lightning trigger" too?

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys,

Hey Marc, that is the second time I have missed a joke in the last day or so. Believe it or not Virgs is one of the guys I was referring and he is about the size of Mike. So it might be an interesting negotiation. LOL.

Chris, that is a person and I see what you are saying. I just had not paid that much attention to it and I may just clone it out in the next day or so.

For the Trigger; it is this one. It is not a Greek trigger; an American one. For use with trigger I use ISO around 200-400 ISO, Aperture mode with aperture set to f8 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/50 of second. The trigger is very sensitive and will give a lot of false positives with all the RF it picks up. This is better though because it will pick up ground strikes two or three times with two to three frames. You will however use a lot of actuations (around 200 from this lot) but I am looking for results. Yes you just wait for the flash and the camera will active of its own accord. I basically set it and just try to shield it from rain.

Rob I hope that explains it for you. I have had the trigger for nearly 2 years now and captured some nice shots with it. It has been very reliable. I think I bought mine on Ebay for a cheaper price.

One thing to remember with lightning photography is follow the safety rules. It can be quite fun, but there have been times I near crapped myself because of how close the lightning has been.

[mishku]

My $0.02 worth - I quite like the person there on the left. Helps make the image a little more "real" - it's so beautiful, and such a lucky capture that I think the walking-man adds a little .. authenticity?

Know what I mean? Beautiful work, just as she is, Paul

[troypiggo (Troy)]

That's an absolute rip-snorter of a shot. Well done!

[Liz]

Damn, now I NEED one of those triggers Paul!!!

Ebay have the Greek ones from $70, and the main others are Patchmasters from $120. Merry Xmas.

[hotspur (Chris)]

Thanks Paul.

For information supplied,I did not know any of that.Certainly worth 200 frames a session to get that one image.

That's a good point 'mishku' makes,the person does add authenticity to image,I just could not make out what is was at first.I think some of those other images like these in other forums are just 'to over polished',the person in your image really does make it look more real.

Well done,cheers Chris

[renormalised (Carl)]

Great shot Paul

Greek lightning trigger....what, every time it sets off a bolt it plays Zorba??

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Outstanding shot Paul, great stuff

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Good stuff on getting your image shown on Channel 10 too Paul...