Robert and I heard rumbling outside tonight (August 16, 2008) so we took off for the airport to get a good view. It's a good thing we did, there was lightning all around us. It was still off in the distance but we got some really great shots. All these pictures were taken in Payson, Arizona in the direction of Phoenix. Everyone from the Phoenix area will have to let me know if they got this storm tonight.
I think I've got this movie function pretty much figured out on my digital camera. The pictures that I posted yesterday were a bit fuzzy because I wasn't focusing before starting the recording. On my camera I have to push the shutter button half-way in and let it focus. Tonight I got some really awesome pictures for all of you.
If I had a movie program that would read the files from my digital camera I would post more movies but right now I can't edit them. So what I do instead is take the movie, watch it later from the digital camera, and then take still pictures from it. I can play the movie frame by frame and catch the best pictures. You would be surprised at how many lightning strikes you can get this way. Strikes that you never remember even seeing happen right in front of you.
I don't know who said that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place but I might have to disagree with that. While doing these videos and pictures I have noticed that two and sometimes more separate bolts will have the same exact pattern and seem to strike at exactly the same place. I really am learning so much from getting these monsoon shots. I'm loving it and I'm loving my camera even more.
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Comments: 52
Patricia: I think you are right. I think it is too fast for the human eye to register it. To us we see a real quick flash but when I play it back frame by frame there is much, much more to see just from a single bolt of lightning. It's really awesome.
Vern: Very cool information. I've also heard that what we see as a bolt is actually the return trip from ground to cloud. If I was younger and had this same interest I would go into this field to study lightning. From the videos that I am getting lightning is way to fast to see the actual starting point in most cases. I can see the stages in between as I go through the video frame by frame. In some of the pictures I can see a starting point in the clouds so I'm not too sure that all lightning is ground to cloud. I'll bet it's a combination of both. Did you go through your video frame by frame? It's really awesome to watch it that way.
Jim: I didn't use any special lenses, just the one that came with my camera. I took all of this with video and I didn't change any settings so it was whatever setting my camera was already set on. I then play the video back on the camera, pause it when I get a good scene, then from that I take a still picture and this is where these pictures come from. My icon was taken in Snowflake a few years ago and with a different camera. That one was not a video but an actual still picture. No special settings on that one either.
Thanks.
Thanks so much for posting this to
my group
very good Toni
Terrific shots! Following the thread, if the lightning is all coming and going from one spot or area, makes you wonder what is in or on the ground that is creating the attraction.
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One year when Col George and I were coming home from Texas. We were in Wyo. when we wetched a beautiful lighting show just about like the one you have here. It was great
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