When Lightning Strikes Part II
 

Our first monsoon storm of the season hit last night. These pictures were taken from my back yard patio. This time I set up a tripod for better pictures. I ended up taking over 600 pictures to get these few :D.

Enjoy!

nice shots

Wicked cool. Those would make a great widescreen backgrounds.

The last one is now my wallpaper :). I have the full 1600x1200 pics if you want any.

Nice SG. I
l'll take one, please.

Thx got the pic. I saw video this morning of the dust storm that I think was kicked up by this same storm. Freaky.

:wow: :yikes:

Cool pics!

Yep, these storms always kick up a dust storm on their leading edge. The sky kind of turns brown, with winds ~50 mph prior to the storms. It was quite a lightning show last night. I think I have it down now. I'll take more pics as new storms show up.

Thx!:thumbup:

Too bad we didn't get much rain, just enough drops to dirty up the car on my drive home last night.

The leading edge of that storm was pretty awesome to see as I drove right into it. The amazing thing is the outside temperature dropped from 113F to 94F in less than 10 minutes on my drive into the storm.

Nice pics, Greg! I can believe the 600+ pics part of the story, and you got some great ones from the bunch that you took.

Pretty cool! I love thunder storms :thumbup:

For a change, we got the brundt of the storm here in the Chandler area :)

Nice shots SG.

We have had one moderate monsoon storm so far this year down I-10E from you. I bet more are on their way :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

TitzPics, SG!
I gotta pass on trying to shoot lightning...
I'd rather hide in the basement, Lol!

Officially, our monsoon season has not yet started. In order for it to be "official", we need to have 3 consequtive days with an average dewpoint of 55 degrees or higher :rofl: . Probably will be official tomorrow.

Nice! The tripod makes a world of difference from your previously posted lightning pics.:thumbup:

Let's see, 300 shots @ 1/8 second, so it took you about a minute? :rofl:

If you get the chance try going fully manual and use a 15 sec shutter speed with an aperture of f/8 or f/11. You might have to fiddle with the ISO to get the right exposure. You'll get some shots of multiple strikes and timing is less of an issue. I haven't tried this technique myself as we don't get a lot of lightning storms here.

Maybe someday when I break down and buy a digital SLR, I'm currently just using my Canon SD550 :D

I checked the specs for your SD550 before posting the above. You can try it now. :thumbup:

LOL, you remember my camera model eh? You're good! I can't figure out how to adjust shutter speed on this mofo.

:rtfm:

Nice pics SG. Monsoon season in AZ is something to behold. I used to love seeing all of the cars stranded in standing water. "Who's the U-boat commander?" :rofl:

I have an IXY 60 purchased in Tokyo (SD600?). Anyway, it has a "Long Shutter" option but no manual shutter speed, AFAIK.

The "Fireworks" setting may work well for lightning too?

Press the Func/Set button, go to the top icon and then press the Menu button, scroll left/right until it says Fireworks and then press Func/Set again.

Actually I cheated. I checked the EXIF data on your pics.

Sweet pics...

That's one of the things I really miss about Miami and the East Coast in general. We used to have the most bitchin storms and beautiful lightning.

Not in LA, though.. Occassionally we get a thunder storm that BOOMS through the hills, but that's about it.. Never any cool lightning..

B

Cool pics, SupahG!!