CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA LIGHTNING 2005
I have been looking through old images, whether they were digital camera images or some of my old slide and negative images, that were scanned years back and have decided to re-edit them using today’s version of Photoshop and other software like Topaz Labs Denoise software. This is the first blog post looking back. I will post a new blog with the old images once a week, while also adding posts about anything new photographically that I shoot. The post below is a direct write up from my old website about this evening’s lightning show. Enjoy and give it a like at the bottom of the page!
July 19, 2005:
For the first time this year, I was able to shoot some lightning photos with the Nikon D70. Having just purchased the camera a few weeks before. There were a few isolated storms in the area on Tuesday evening moving eastward in the early evening. From central Suffolk, a storm started to re-develop and began to look more impressive as it pushed towards the city of Chesapeake. I drove to central Chesapeake just north of the Chesapeake Airport, where is setup at a school on Cedar Road where the storm would pass just south of me. Lightning started out ahead of the storm in a clear area ahead of the storm, and I was able to shoot some "daytime" lightning for the first time. This would be a test for me managing the brightness of the bolts as well as the ambient light coming from the setting sun and making the images work. I have always wanted to do this but with film, you could waste a lot of frames and just not have much to show for it. With digital, that is possible now. I was using Barons Mobile Threat Net Radar to get into position by using the GPS function over radar. This allowed me to get into position and start shooting well before the storm passed to my south. Below is a screen shot of the radar image, and the lightning photos as the cell pushed off to my south and east.
First image of the evening with the setting sun highlighting the scene.
The storm was redeveloping at this point and the bolts were nice and thick out ahead of the cell
Still working out the kinks with the new digital camera, some were under exposed.
That’s a little better! Nice double bolt that was exactly at the same time.
Sun setting quickly and rain moving in. I would take shelter under the bus ramp awning next.
I believe this is my favorite from the evening. The bolt discharge you can see was in front of or just inside the rain shaft while there was still clear skies to the right.
After this image, the rain cut loose and it became harder to shoot. About 15 minutes later it had all stopped as the storm died quickly as we lost the heating of the day.
Mobile ThreatNet radar image of the approaching storm