editor Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 We had a wicked series of thunderstorms tonight, so my wife encouraged me to try to take pictures of the lightning. It took about a half an hour, but I managed to catch a bolt hitting the Sears Tower. It probably got hit about 30 times while I was setting up, and this was the last one of the bunch. I was lucky to catch it. I think it came out pretty good for my first try at lightning photography. Interestingly, after some of the lightning strikes there would be a HUGE cloud of smoke or vapor or something that would rise off the tower. I don't know what it was. Hopefully just accumulated rain on top of the tower vaporizing in the lightning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bachanon Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 wayyyy cool! love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marty Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 WOW for the first try I would say you did a excellent job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted August 24, 2007 Author Share Posted August 24, 2007 WOW for the first try I would say you did a excellent job.There were a lot better ones that I missed. There was one that hit both antennae and kind of flared out at the sides. I wish I would have gotten that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyHomeHouston Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 Nice shot! So is this pretty much a random thing; you just keep snapping shots until you catch one? Or do you have superb reflexes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 It was STEAM editor. 1.21 gigawatts creates a nasty burn. "The air in the core of a lightning bolt has been estimated to be heated to as much as 54,000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted August 24, 2007 Author Share Posted August 24, 2007 Nice shot! So is this pretty much a random thing; you just keep snapping shots until you catch one? Or do you have superb reflexes? I tried the reflexes thing at first (I have a cable release), but that didn't work. So what I did was set the camera to the normal settings I use for nighttime skylines. Then I just click. The shutter stays open for about ten seconds. Then it takes eight seconds to write the file. When it's done, I click again. I missed a few while the camera was writing the files, but got one eventually. I've seen on web sites like makezine.com how you can build a lightning detector that will automagically trip the camera, but I don't do it that often so it's not worth building something special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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