A rarity for us

[ucci]

Thunder storms here at our place are as rare as rocking horse poo. And they are short lived. Half an hour max. Everywhere else that has them has far better thunder dome lightning than the pissy sparkler stuff we get. But beggars can't be choosers. So when we had one last night I sat outside on my rocking chair and fired off 100 or so hand held shots in the hope of not missing the action when I pressed the shutter. But my shooting sojourn was curtailed as Mrs Ucci made some quite earthy remarks as to what she would do with my camera if I did not come inside immediately and help her to comfort two very distressed dogs who do not cope with thunder storms. So, seeing as her offer on the placement of the camera if I did not comply sounded rather painful, I headed inside to do as told, ASAP. Never mind her total disregard for her pulling the rug and her crushing my Artistic Endeavours.
This is my first attempt at this sort of subject. As soon as I saw the flash I pressed the shutter. Hence I missed most of the strikes, ending up with black sky. You know, I think there must be easier photos shoots.

Okay, having made as many excuses as possible for the following posts ....

Oh, one last thing for those who might care...
Canon 7D Frame with EF-S 18 -200 mm lens, 1:3.5- 5.6IS
Settings, aperture f 3.5, Exposure 1/50s , ISO 1000
focus on infinity
Hand held shooting

[Nicks Pics]

Got some cool captures there. I would have to think about that a while to decide how best to capture lightning strikes. Burst shooting? Perhaps if the strikes were frequent enough.

[FootLoose]

You definitely nailed the last one, Ken. Well done.

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, I like the last. Try keeping the shutter open a bit longer.

[wilgk]

Last one is beaut & most importantly you lived to tell the tale!

[IzzieK]

Rocking chair, huh? Very Aussie...I love #2 and the last one...and I like your intro story. Tell your wife to give your dogs some kibbles every time a thunder sounds, surely there will be lightning afterwards. They will soon get used to it and never be scared of thunder again. That was how I trained my dogs...they are still scared of fireworks though...I can never worked that one out...

[Donald]

So, seeing as her offer on the placement of the camera if I did not comply sounded rather painful,

Good grief. Has she no thought about the damage that could be done to the camera?

[ucci]

Thank you all for viewing and nice feed back. And Donald, if I might distract you from soaking your morning brekky haggis in malt whiskey for a jiffy, picture a 7D frame with a 500mm Sigma zoom lens, attached and fully extended, and mutterings about 'sideways,' and you will understand instant compliance was the order of the day and so said camera was never at risk.

[bnnrcn]

I like the last one very much, the others are also nice trials

[Barbara Ponder]

The pictures are nice, the phrase "rare as rocking horse poo" PRICELESS!!!!

[Marie Hass]

Hi, Kevin,

I love shooting lightning and have been somewhat successful at it, so here goes:

Do you have a tripod? It will help. What about a remote release? It allows you to keep the shutter open longer without camera shake.

You have a 7D, as so I. If you are comfortable using other modes, try bulb mode. You can keep the shutter open as long as you like.

Set your camera up on the tripod where you intend to shoot. Set ISO to 100. Auto white balance. Set focus to manual - infinity. Using the remote, open the shutter and wait. As soon as you get a strike, close the shutter, or wait a bit longer to see if you can get anoother one in your picture. Usually if there are no stikes within 30 seconds, I will close the shutter and reopen it to avoid over-exposure.

Just a few ideas. Weather events fascinate me.

'Rie