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WYK | profile | all galleries >> root >> Lightning tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Lightning

Canon G3 digital photographs of lightning Canon G3 digital photographs of lightning, Round Rock, TX lt-24-9.JPG
3 strikes in front of riata austin tx in front of riata during a storm, Austin, TX
Lightning strike on the edge of a squall line. lightning strike 65 yards away tx_light1.JPG
tx_light2.JPG tx_light3.JPG Texas lightning
Lightning overhead tx-lt-4.JPG lt-m2.JPG
lt-m3.JPG lt-m4.JPG lt-m5.JPG
ZAP! t-ltm1.JPG lt-24-1.JPG
lt-24-2.JPG lt-24-3.JPG Lightning in North Austin, Texas
lt-24-5.JPG lt-24-8.JPG lt-24-91.JPG
Lightning in Austin, TEXAS Edge of the storm (Squall line) as it cuts through the hill country. Another storm brews in the Austin, TX hill country.
First Lightning pic with Nikon 950 digital cam Die, Tree! lite2.JPG
lt1.jpg lt2.jpg julylt1.jpg
Texas Lightning julylt3.jpg julylt4.jpg
julylt5.jpg Canon G3 digital photographs of lightning Canon G3 digital photographs of lightning
Canon G3 digital photographs of lightning This one is from a short storm in August. aug-light-1.jpg
Tennessee lightning Tennessee lightning Photographing lightning from a moving vehicle.
The following are photos of lightning I took on April 18 light-02pb.jpg light-03pb.jpg
These next 3 are taken off-hand, with the shutter set to 1/4 second. Lightning in Southern Illinois Lightning in Southern Illinois

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Mike 25-May-2010 02:57
Hey heading off to bed...but the pics are beautiful I love lightning photography..I live in killeen, wish we would have gotten more storms this spring hopefully summer brings some good ones so I can get some lightning myself.
michael van peski 14-Jul-2007 23:00
I love your work and hopefuly I will be able to have a web page set up for me so that I can show mine. I have been shooting lightning for about 25 years and living on the MS gulf coast and 40 miles from New Orleans I have seen some awesome storms and shot them, including hurricane Katrina. I shoot 35mm and medium format and mainly the medium because fo the larger images. I don't shoot with any digital as I am old fashioned and don't believe in it. I don't care what others shoot with as it is just me. thanks for some very beautiful shots.
Guest 20-Sep-2006 17:24
those are awesome pictures of lightning, in this case you are lucky to live in an area you have a lot of them, here in Belgium it rarely happens. it is interesting to see wich exposure time you use!
well done!
grtz
Tamara
Guest 14-Jul-2005 18:39
I LOVE YOUR LIGHTNING PICTUREDS.
Steve Cavanah19-Jun-2005 05:36
Very nice work.
WYK27-Oct-2002 01:16
The hardest part about shooting lightning is not the technical photo skills. It's learning how to deal with the weather itself. Hill country thunderstorms are a very intimate experience. I was nearly deafened on more than one occasion. Some of those photos I am holding a towel over the camera and tripod to keep them dry as possible, bracing the legs as best I can with books or bricks, and holding the tripod still as I can with my hand while the free hand trips the shutter remote release after the towel is removed. Some of those storms I photographed had 55 mph winds with one dropping 6 inches of rain. So much rain, I had to stop photographing because I knew the lightning wouldn't show, and it was near impossible to keep my rig dry even under an awning. On one of storms the lightning was so close every single one of my slides was overexposed, and I bracketed at f8-16!. My hearing also likely suffered. The thunder shook my insides. I also left that session early for fear of being 'exposed' myself.

The technical aspect is: 100 speed film(Fuji Provia F e6/slide seems to look best), 4-8 F, usually infinite focus, 8-30 seconds with a remote release, and a sky 1B or a polarizing filter, and occasional use of a blue filter. At night I can usually let the auto exposure set the time because it will expose long enoguh to catch lightning. During the dusk or day, I have to set the f stop at 8 or so and also control the exposure manually or the time the shutter is open won't be enough to catch lightning, or the lightning will be too dim. After a fashion, you get a feel for it. For every lightning pic that ends up in the gallery, maybe 12-20 exposures don't. They either are under exposed, over exposed, or have water or debris on the lense, or lightning never came during the exposure.
Good luck! Expect more from me soon. I moved to a new house and all photography virtually ground to a halt for the last 3 months. Owning a house is a tremendous amount of work.
Y'all take care, now,

Wes Y. Keller
Round Rock, TEXAS
raetsel 26-Oct-2002 12:44
i've always wanted to be able to photograph lightning. I live here in Austin, TEXAS, and i can tell you that there is some fascinating imagery to be had during the storms here, if only i knew how to capture it... :o(
monica 27-Jul-2002 16:59

I am in the lightning protection industry..very fasinating pics..I live in The #1 lightning capitol of the US..FL. web site: lightningrodparts.com

Thanx
Julian Williams09-Jun-2001 05:32
Fantastic pictures! You have a lot of unusual lightning around there. Where do you live?
Mark Ledford29-Apr-2001 05:34
Love lightning photography :)
Mark
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