Lightning Strikes

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi All,

Watched an amazing lightning storm one night on a tiny Island (Lankayan island) just off the east coast of Borneo.

This is my first attempt at capturing lightning. Unfortunately I'd left my remote control back in the room and couldn't figure a way of using Bulb mode without it (Nikon D90 - if anyone knows a way of doing this without holding the shutter down with your fingure for the duration). So i just kept taking 30 sec exposures and checking to see what I'd captured.

Anyways, thought I'd share it with ya...



Lemme know what you think

[jiro]

Awesome! That's all I can say, Tommy.

[Stinky]

Very Nice

[CBImages]

Magnificent Tommy.
I love the lighting (not lightening although I love that as well), in the sky, there is so much contrast in the centre of the sky - AWESOME!

I would darken the sand quite a bit though.
The eye is attracted to lightest part of the image, although the lightening is the lightest part of your image the sand is also quite light and so it competes slightly. If it was darkened the viewers eye would stay around the centre of the image, exploring the details in the clouds and lightening forks rather than getting dragged down to the bottom right of the image.

Still one of the most spectacular images I have seen!

Chris

[rgfuller]

Awesome picture!!! Just beautiful....

[Katy Noelle]

Really wonderful! er, really brave?

[MiniChris]

Nice lesson in composition. Look at how the eye moves through this image and while I agree with Chris as to the sand needing darkening, I wouldn't do it any more than about 3/4 of a stop as I did in this study. You could lose about i/8 to 1/4 of the left side of the frame and improve the focus point concentration, but I tend to like the counter-opposing dark upper left to light lower right.

Nice shot given the shutter experience.

[Donald]

You just have to hope there wasn't a wee boat out at that point on the horizon!

Lovely, Tommy.

[FrankMi]

Hi Tommy, capturing lightning is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get, and oh-boy, did you get a beauty! But what really makes this shot is that it isn't 'just' the lightning. You have an interesting foreground as well that could stand on its own, which is what makes this shot so special. You could substitute a sunrise/sunset or even a bright day with white fleecy clouds and still have beautiful image. Very well done!

[RockNGoalStar]

Wowzers! Didn't think I'd get that sort of a response! Thank you all for your kind words

I don't feel quite as guilty about leaving my newly wed wife in bed and running down to the bar for 20 mins with my tripod anymore :P Don't worry, it was about 10 days into the honeymoon and she was tired anyways :P

Thanks also for your suggestions on the sand, and Chris I like what you've done to it. I'll sort out the high res version I have when I get home!

[Donald]

it was about 10 days into the honeymoon and she was tired anyways

Now you're just boasting.

With all these images being posted up, I was wondering what happened to this poor woman, upon whom your undivided attention was meant to be!

[Katy Noelle]

I don't know, Donald! I think it speaks hopeful and good things for the two of them if they're still together!

[FrankMi]

I don't feel quite as guilty about leaving my newly wed wife in bed and running down to the bar for 20 mins with my tripod anymore :P

You take your tripod to the bar? Whatever for?

[Donald]

You take your tripod to the bar? Whatever for?

Doesn't drink as much as the wife!

[Katy Noelle]

Oh, gee whizz, you guys!

[Donald]

Oh, gee whizz, you guys!

Does a 'gee whizz' and a couple of 'sighs' equal an 'eesh'?

I've never had an 'eesh'. Does that mean you don't like me as much?

[MiniChris]

Well, afterall, a tripod is for support, and for someone so "worn out" after 10 days of wedded bliss, does one need to say more!

[RockNGoalStar]

Absolutely hilarious! All of you!

[CBImages]

Looks like the weather was similar to my honeymoon - mid August 1992 in St Lucia. Hurricane Andrew decided to pay us a visit and we were confined to our room for 3 days - no running water, no electricity.
Boy I know how to show a girl a good time!
Sad to say I didn't have a camera with me or else I might have been out taking some snaps - after all you can get too much of a good thing................ can't you?

Chris

[MiniChris]

Ask me in another 20 years...I'll be in my mid eighties by then, and perhaps....then again, perhaps not. But to answer your question...at your age, not a freakin' chance!