Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Smokestack Lightning

Tuesday night's passing thunderstorms came by particularly hard-hitting, with reports of hail and a possible tornado the next town over. For us it was quick approaching high winds; carrying torrential downpours mixed with incredible lightning, crashing all about.



We sat out on the (covered) porch, and watched the show...



The very close thunder shock waved the house, causing the baby to wail, the dog to hide under a blanket, and your humble blogger to grin and maneuver the camera from window to window, to try and catch 'The Big One'...



I didn't catch the one I hoped for, but at least learned some valuable lightning-picture taking lessons for next time...



Like all natural calamities, there's something very exciting about a good thunder/lightning storm; providing it can be watched safely...



I always wonder what our god fearing ancestors thought about storms like these as they huddled together, virtually exposed to the elements. No electrically lighted house behind them, no shingled roofs, no weather radar to give an idea how long it would last or which way it was going. They must have thought it exciting too, but exciting on an entirely different level.



The storm moved on as quickly as it came. The lightning began to cross the sky more than strike the ground, and soon the flashes dimmed to just the occasional burst of light in the low clouds, moving out.



It's the 21st century and the gods have spared us, once again...

7 comments:

Jeffrey Byrnes said...

Great posts. You did a fantastic job capturing the lighting.

VanDog said...

Wow! Great shots Tony.

Elizabeth said...

Wow, great job capturing lightning!

Mary E.Carey said...

Fun post! I can just see you trying to get the great shot while the rest of the household runs for cover

Tony said...

Thanks guys, glad you liked the post; it was a fitting end for such a rainy June..!

-C said...

Tony, what camera settings did you use to take those pictures?

Tony said...

-C, I experimented with different settings, but used the 'bulb' setting on all of them for shutter speed -meaning the shutter stays open as long as I want it to, which for these was like 15 to 30 seconds mostly- and I think the apertures were between f11 and f16, (the wider the aperture the shorter the shutter time I used) and I used 200 and 400 ISO...and waited..!