Lightning before the floods + Edit

[Dave Johnston]

At the end of June my area of West Virginia was hit with an unexpected, very severe series of thunderstorms. A low that unexpectedly developed in southwestern Pennsylvania drew a cool high from the north and warm humid air from the south into a seam along northern WV and western Maryland. For several hours a line of storms trained from northwest to southeast, dropping very heavy rain over the same areas for hours. The lightning was incredible. I watched in the distance as the line sagged gradually south, with flashes averaging about every 2 to 3 seconds for several hours. When it started to get close I broke out my new lightning trigger and was able to capture this one close strike.

This was only a few minutes before the heavy rain got to my area, and it didn't let up for about 3 hours. The towns along the creeks and rivers were inundated, with damaging floods all around; a state of emergency was later declared by the governor. Some main routes were washed out and countless bridges were destroyed, overrun, or blocked by fallen trees. They are still cleaning up a week later.

I have taken "manual" lightning shots before but this is my first with the trigger. I'm relatively inexperienced with processing lightning shots so I would appreciate any comments and suggestions. The purple color is real; it reportedly is indicative of a very high temperature bolt.

Lightning Dryfork 190630

• Dave Johnston
• Jul 8, 2019

Thanks for your suggestions and comments.

Dave

 

[JimFox]

Hey Dave,

Wow, what crazy conditions. We have been having some really strong unusual and damaging weather all around for the last few years. I guess this is the new norm.

I really like what you captured. I am glad your Lightning Trigger worked. Did it seem to be able to catch the lightning fine? I got one a few years back, but just am never in an area where much lightning happens, so mine sits unused in it's box.

I like the processing, you could even push the purple a bit more I think. Lightning does seem to create some super unusual color casts.

One thing I would do is crop more off the bottom to lose the grass area on the left. I know it will leave the bottom only being a row of trees. But my mind is spending more time trying to figure out if the ground is level then actually being able to enjoy the lightning. Looking at the trees, I know it's level, but then my eye see's the angle of the grass line at the edge of the trees and wants to think the photo is unlevel even though from the trees I know it's not.

 

[AlanLichty]

I'd love to have a trigger myself but I don't live in an area with many thunderstorms so haven't placed it on my list of things to try. I like the shot here although I do think Jim's crop suggestion is a good one.

 

[Ben Egbert]

You have a fantastic lighting bolt and sky and a so so foreground, I agree with the crop ideas.

 

[Sunny Sra]

That is so cool! WOW!
i use the miops trigger. It is all in one and has worked well for me for time lapses...haven't had a chance to shoot lightning with it yet.

 

[Dave Johnston]

Thanks, Jim, Alan, Ben and Sunny. I actually am using the Lightning Bug and it does seem to work well, after a little experimentation. When I lived in the Virginia suburbs I never had a usable view of lightning, so I never bothered. I'm getting a lot of chances to try it out this year in WV.

Jim, the ground is actually sloping; the camera itself was level. The problem with cropping off the grass is that then leaves only tops of the smaller trees in front visible; it looks even more chopped off; even worse that the current. I think the solution in future shots will be include more of the grass in the foreground so it isn't such a small wedge.

Another solution would be to rotate the photo so the plane of the trees is "level" even though it's really not. Most people wouldn't notice that the tree trunks are slightly tilted. I'll take a look at that option.

Dave

 

[Dave Johnston]

I rotated the pciture so that the actual sloping foreground looks more or less level. Of course, this required some cropping. any thoughts on how this compares with the original?

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the result. The slope of the distant mountain towards the center seems a bit steep but mostly because we had already seen the original horizon.

 

[Jim Sanderson]

Very nice.

 

[JimFox]

Good job on the edit Dave! With the original, it was like my mind knew it was level, but my eyes kept trying to say you can't fool me...

I think what you did was a great compromise. It provides the bottom of the trees so there is a nice anchor and it's not distracting, it just sets the table for lightning.

 

[Alisa]

Wow this is cool!

 

[Dave Johnston]

Thank you everyone. I could certainly get away with the rotated version as long as I didn't worry about being faithful to the scene! I now know to include more foreground when shooting from there again!

Dave

 

[Vieri]

Very cool shot of a lightning! Best regards,

Vieri

 

[Bart Carrig]

Great capture Dave. Having a great shot of mere fraction of a second is a real accomplishment. And the edit works very well. You've got me thinking about the Lightning Bug.

Bart

 

[Dave Johnston]

Thanks, Vieri and Bart!

Lightning-in-the-landscape opens up a whole new realm!

Dave