Tuesday's Lightning Storm. - a photo on Flickriver

A strong cell of thunder and lightning storms rolled in around 11PM last night. We get a lot of lighting down here during the summer, but very little of it is good to photograph because it is generally accompanied by rain. Rain in the air obscures the clarity of the lightning, gets your gear wet and makes lightning shooting a lot less fun.

Until I find a new and better perch, I like to go up to the top of the casino parking garage that was recently built by the levee. The top floors are generally empty and as long as the rain isn't blowing sideways, you are reasonably shielded from the elements. One of these days I'd really like to get up to the top on of one of the newer state parking garages closer to the capital but until I find a way to sweet talk my way past security, I am stuck with what the casino hath built.

All the same, this parking garage offers as a near 360° view of the city. And when the conditions are right, you can get some pretty amazing stuff. I shot for about an hour and ended up with many frames that had lightning in them. However, one high cloud burst really illuminated the whole tableau or downtown and sent its twisting bolts all across the skyline. I wish I knew more about the types of lightning because you can see some pretty clearly different forms in the shots shown here. But, I am still very much the layman when it comes to the things meteorological. I hope you enjoyed the show. Word has it that one of these shots will run on the news tonight and may already have run on the mid-day news.

DETAILS

Shot with a Canon 5D MKII on a my fancy new carbon-fiber Vanguard tripod using either the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM or the Canon EF 28 f/1.4 L USM. Most of the shots were taken with a didymium filter to notch out some of the red tones generated by the city's street lights. The EXIF data tells the tale but the shots were all at ISO 100 and f/8 with the shutter ranging from 20-30 seconds. I also used a AOE Lightning Strike II to trigger the shutter.

Check out more at my blog, for lots of photos, recipes, tech talk, travel writing and other ramblings. I appreciate any feedback but, please do not post graphic awards or invitations in the comments, I'm just not crazy about them. Also, if you want to use any of my Commercial Commons licensed photos please link the attribution back to my blog (listed above) and use my full name, Frank McMains. Thanks! Sorry, but you have to pay to use fully copyright protected photos.

Taken in: United States / Louisiana / Baton Rouge / Beauregard Town (show map)

Taken on: May 6, 2012

Tags:

Baton Rouge

Lightning

Canon 5D MkII

Aperture

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 USM L

AOE Lightning Strike II

Nik Color Efex Pro 4

Nik Viveza

Nik Dfine 2

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/8.0, 20 sec, 35mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	20
Focal Length:	35mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Aperture 3.2.3
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