Virginia Storms and Sunset
On August 20, 2019 we had afternoon storms that fired in the area around Hampton Roads. I went out to “chase” the storms but wasn’t having much luck as I went deep into the city of Suffolk and southward to near the North Carolina border. I had pretty much started to give up for the day when another cell developed over Wakefield and was slowly pulling northeast. So I decided to head back up Rt. 13 to Rt. 58 where I jumped on I664 and headed to the northern portion of Suffolk to and area and neighborhood called Harbour View which is along the Nansemond River.
I finally arrived and quickly grabbed my camera and tripod and headed to a gated pier on the water looking northwest towards the storm. I set up and decided to be able to get some lightning images, I would have to use some graduated neutral density filters to help expose for the highlights while being able to get proper exposure for the foreground. I stacked 2 filters and began firing away. Nice large crawlers flew across the sky and the setting sun was just and incredible scene. I hate I was as close to the storm as I was because the crawlers were just so big, I couldn’t catch all of it in the frame as they flew overhead. Below are a few of those amazing sunset lightning shots.
F/14 | 5 seconds | ISO 100 | G ND 2 & 4 stacked
This large crawler appeared almost out of nowhere. It came from the northwest, the direction the camera is looking, and from the southeast where another storm was moving offshore. They nearly connected just out of frame.
F/14 | 5 seconds | ISO 100 | G ND 2 & 4 stacked
F/14 | 5 seconds | ISO 100 | G ND 2 & 4 stacked
Sunset on the Nansemond