Your Best Lightning Shot of 2008?

[Jim Saueressig]

After seeing Joseph's lightning thread yesterday and a few comments about starting a thread about lighting for everyone's use I had decided to do one yesterday and got sidetracked.

Well here is that thread, Post your best shots this year.

I often shoot from John Redmond Reservoir up on the dam next to the gauge house which is a 6x6 ish 8 foot tall brick box with a door that has a few weather instruments on top for wind speed, direction, rain and whatever. I was joking in chat yesterday with Dick McGowen about shooting next to a lightning attractor, LOL

Well tonight I see the distant lightning and for once its not really embedded in the rain so I head out there to Redmond. I see a few strikes that really had me trying to get there in a hurry but after getting there and getting set up it mostly dies off. I was getting ready to pack it in when some cloud to cloud started firing off just past and over me in next to nothing clouds...

Well next thing I know a strike hits on the lake, I realize its a little (Lot) close for my 50mm so I sit in the back of the van (hatchback) and grab the 18-55 and Flash ... 1 sec ... 2 sec(BOOM) It was off a little to the side of my camera so I shifted the camera a wee bit. A few close strikes later and I was still trying to wipe my other lens before throwing it on the camera and CRACK/FLASH/OHSHYT!/BUZZZZZZZZ (The CRACK and FLASH might be reversed but at that close its hard to tell) ... I looked up at the stuff on top of the gauge house that was still buzzing from the hit less than 8 feet from my head as I reset the shutter on the Camera for another capture and started looking at the ground wire from the equipment running down the gauge house about 4 feet from me ... "Flash" a few seconds later "Boom" And just like that it was over.

A cell built real fast ahead of the line right over me but it provided me a few real nice shots including the best which was the last... If I had jumped in the van like I should have I would have missed my best shot of the year (so far but it might be real hard to beat) (Click Pics for Larger)



100% Crop:



See my Flickr for the rest.

 

[Marko Korosec]

These are my fave I took in US during May...

The rest can be seen here: http://www.weather-photos.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=lightning+2008

 

[D. Hayes]

Fantastic Photos!

Might want to join the thread over here that a bunch of us contributed to already.

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17134

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Fantastic Photos!

Might want to join the thread over here that a bunch of us contributed to already.

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17134

Thanks Hayes

I was trying not to hijack Joseph's thread if thats the one you tried posting. ( I cannot access the link you posted ) LOL

 

[Joel Wright]

This is laughable compared to your guys great shots. Hey, all I can say is there's still a long season to go!

 

[Dick McGowan]

Wow, that's an incredible shot, Jim! Perfectly exposed, a great strike and I love how it lights up the whole lake...

 

[Kevin Myatt]

I didn't shoot this personally, but a student in our storm chase group, Virginia Tech freshman Jessica Burchard, did on May 13 in western Jack County, Texas. No special tricks, she just aimed and fired at the right time. There are many elements I love about this shot: Both our vans and most of our group are in it, there is a wall cloud/funnel cloud lowering to the left, the late day sun burning through at the right, and if you look closely, the reflections of the lightning on the top of the van in the foreground.

 

[Paul Stofer]

First lightning storm with new camera

This was the first lightning storm I was able to photograph with the new camera.. This shot didn't turn out too bad. I haven't had the opportunity to pull all the photos off the camera from this season, but this one wasn't too bad.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

This is laughable compared to your guys great shots. Hey, all I can say is there's still a long season to go!

I have hundreds that look worse than that. Its mostly luck and timing.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I haven't had a ton of real chances to shoot lightning at this point in the season, but I have a couple I like...

Lincoln, Nebraska

This is my favorite shot of the year because it was a hand-held finger-triggered. There was no extended exposure, no lightning-trigger, just me, the camera, and an itchy trigger finger! I actually nabbed three shots like this by day's end, so the lightning was very favorable for this kind of shooting!

 

[cedwards]

Some very nice pictures! Here are some of my favorite ones. These were taken out my hotel window in Austin, TX with a 10mm Sigma lens on mt Canon XTi

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Couple full sized crops. First May 13 sw MO. Second April 9 Wichita Falls TX.

 

[John Farley]

The first two below are not in a league with some others here, and not as good as some I've gotten in years past, but they are my best so far this year, and both have interesting stories. The first I like because of where it was taken - Beijing, China, out the window of my hotel room on May 26 A storm rolled in our second-last night there and I decided to try for some lightning and got this on the first try:

This next one was from south of Bowling Green, MO on June 3. I was losing the storm I was on as it crossed the Mississippi River, but it was putting down a lot of lightning, some with repeated flashes, so I tried just hitting the button when I saw a flash and got this:

Finally, can't ignore the one below, which is interesting mainly because it has a tornado in it, illuminated by the lightning. The tornado is to the left of the trees at the lower right of the photo. Getting this lightning and its illumination of the tornado was totally by accident - I took a picture of the tornado and the lightning flashed just as I did. This was taken just northwest of Danvers, IL on June 4.

I've got a more cropped version with better contrast on my computer at home that I came up with after some post-processing of the above pic, but am on the road right now and don't have it on my laptop. Hoping to get some better lightning pics in the coming days in NM!

 

[Greg McLaughlin]

Jim that lightning shot is incredible. I like how the bolt goes right down the middle of the frame. The way it lights the treetops and the lake with such detail is insane. This is one of my favorite shots this year.

 

[MatthewCarman]

Thanks Hayes

I was trying not to hijack Joseph's thread if thats the one you tried posting. ( I cannot access the link you posted ) LOL

Hi Jim, he was refering to a thread started earlier this year in May or early June asking people to post thier best lightning shots of 2008. You probibly did not notice the thread when it was started.

Some of the pictures posted in this thread are asome.