PHOTOGRAPH INFO

This photo was taken on Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. with a tripod from my front porch. We've had an unusual run of weather the last week that's caused thunderstorms to move from east to west rather than the usual west to east. (A low front stationed over the Atlantic Ocean.) I've been able to watch the storms from a distance and they're better than fireworks!

Post-processing: Shot with the Canon EOS 5D and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens at 70mm, ISO 100, f/22, shutter 10s. (Tripod and shutter release used.) Cropped slightly, applied curves adjustments and color balancing.

Thank you for visiting (stormy) Durham Township!

--Kathleen

Classically Beautiful. I've been trying to capture lightning around here down by the river, but I need to catch it just as the storms are rolling in. That way I don't get soaked in the process.

Hopefully I'll catch it soon, and hopefully it will look somewhere close to this good.

I really love this shot, love how the lightning goes through the diffrent clouds - wonder how meany shots you took before getting this one :D

frie in the sky.. Beautiful lighting shot!

Beautiful!!! Love the light show.

These storms have managed to go right around me. I get all excited in anticipation when the sky gets dark and ominous, we get wind and a little rain. I can hear the thunder and see the flashes way off in the distance but they haven't come close enough for me to see the real light show.

Very nice shot, Kathleen. I know what you mean about the unusual run of weather. I got caught in a nasty thunderstorm on Sunday afternoon while hiking in the Poconos. However, as I was getting drenched from head to toe, I dare not pull out my camera from my backpack to capture the lightning show. I just enjoyed it from under a low hanging hemlock tree in the woods next to Bruce Lake. Glad you were able to capture it for us to enjoy here under a dry roof.

Holy Cow! This is so cool.

I just started a photo-blog and hope you don't mind when I add you to my links.

OMG!!! fantastic!! I am speechless!!

WOW! This is soooo wonderful. Night shots are my favorite and this is spectacular. What a wonderful show you must have :)

WOW! This is soooo wonderful. Night shots are my favorite and this is spectacular. What a wonderful show you must have :)

Love the color.

Spectacular capture! Let's hope this odd weather stops, Gen and I are spending the weekend in LBI.

Incredible shot. You hit it just right.

Yes, brown thunder strike is nice, but not realistic...

This has to be one of the coolest lighting shot i have seen.

Wow, very cool. Glad you posted your shutter settings -- I wouldn't have thought you would take something like this with a long shutter release, but it makes sense.

Amazing photograph, very nice details and colors. A real mody picture.

Marius: The lightning is definitely not brown - not sure why it appears that way on your monitor - it should look red/yellow/white, the same as an incandesent light bulb filament.

I made two basic adjustments to the RAW file: one with the curves tool to increase contrast in the clouds, and one with the color balancing tool to reduce the blue tones from a long exposure of the sky.

Perhaps the background color of the blog brings out warmer tones in the image, causing the lightning to look brown. Take a look at the larger version -- the fact that it takes up more of the screen might change that.

Thanks for the feedback!

WOW very impressive shot. Great work.

Woah, thats some serious lighting you have there! I actually see a face in the clouds as well...

PS: I miss you ;)

wow! this must have been amazing, it does look brown on my lcd as well! what really strikes me is that it looks like you are right under it - or very close...
great!

I've been tempted to try this myself, you've given me the inspiration--beautiful.

please don't tell me u were out in the fields photographing lightnings!

this shot is so dramatic, its almost "lord of the rings" like

reminds me of the Eye.

It is made quite clear, in this pre-dawn un-retouched infra-thermal satellite image, that the Amazon now flows white hot from the Andes to the Atlantic. Thus proving definitively that global warming is no joke......really.

BUT IF it WERE lightning, (as "some people" would have us believe,) it would only serve to illustrate the speed at which neurons would need to fire in order to enable a photoblogist to successfully anticipate the speed and trajectory of an unladen (European) swallow.

Should a sufficient number of neurons attain the "light speed" required, a digital photographic image similar to the image preceding this one might be produced. (refer to previous image!)

Atmospheric phenomena or Areal of the Amazon, Thanks!

(So, Kathleen, if you wished to trace the lightning's path across the heavens, would you require a "Lucy in the Sky?")

Gasp! Simply amazing. I haven't seen a lightning display in a very long time, and this reminds me how enjoyable they are.

NOW that is an AWSOME photo. I've been wanting to capture some lightning as the photos are always spectacular.

Fantastic work as always Kathleen.

Keep up the great work,
Darren

Woah! Fantastic shot! I love the angry clouds surrounding the lightning. I've got the same storms around me. It looks like it's going to rain, but so far we've barely had any.

Terrific capture, Kathleen.

Fantastic show. My 12 yo son can't stop looking at this photo. :)

I'm like totally blown away by the awesome DOF happening here. (Or is it just me?)

Re-thanks, and try to stay focused!

An awesome display of raw power.

Isn't one of the thrills and the chills of our early years the memories of the summer thunderstorms? Who didn't love sitting on the front porch or in the car watching the lightning scribble its way across the sky? It's hard to say which we liked better, the flash or the bang, and who among us hasn't counted the seconds between them? The uncertainty and the randomness as to where these tendrils may strike still make us all uneasy today.

It has been theorized that life itself came from an electrical charge. I bolt of energy that hit a pool of primordial ooze created all that there is on planet earth. You can see that raw energy here and feel the danger lurking behind it. When faced with an awe inspiring sight such as this, is there any wonder why mankind has always worshipped the heavens?

WOW! What a beuatiful capture you've made! Did you press the shutter release everytime you started to see lightning? What kinda tripod do you use? I am eagerly searching for the right one... I use a Canon Digital Rebel XT

Impressive capture.

Spectacular shot!!! Very nice colors.

Brilliant shot!