alittlenews

Here is an example of allowing the baseline ambient exposure determine your overall exposure for the image. I exposed for the building and waited.

Okay, first of all let me say I stink at getting good lightning photos.  I got lucky with these the other night shooting literally in my back yard.  I stink at shooting lightning for the same reason I can’t fish.  Two reasons really, I am not lucky and I am not patient.  The luck part is because I can’t control where thunderstorms happen and for whatever reason when I show up with a camera the storm seems to clam up and save its lightning bolts for someone else.  Better still, the best lightning happens while my camera writes the previous image to the card.  Now that is frustrating.

The other reason is I am impatient.  To successfully shoot lightning you have to have the patience of a good fisherman.  Lighting strikes but n0t always where you can see it.  The storm the other night is a great example.  The lightning was flashing so frequently it looked like paparazzi at and Elvis sighting.  The flashes were nearly continuous but most of them, like 90 plus percent, were all either inside the cloud or were streaking in areas out of my field of vision.  Patience allows you to wait it out until you get the frame you are looking for and I am not willing to invest too much time waiting for something that might not happen.

I didn’t mention that I don’t presently own a tripod.  Actually, I have not owned a tripod in so many years I don’t really remember the last time I did own a tripod.  I am contemplating purchasing one with the idea I will have to have one when my video capable SLR arrives in a month or so.  From all I have seen a good set of sticks is almost a prerequisite to shooting solid video.  We will see.

Without the tripod I am left bracing the camera against first one thing and then another.  These lighting photos were shot with my camera sitting on top of a large, plastic recycling container the city issues.  The trick becomes positioning the camera in such a way that it doesn’t move around during the exposure.  I just put my hand on it to hold it in place but I have used my camera bag to stabilize a long exposure in the past.  I have always been a whatever works kind of guy.

The other part of good lightning photos is safety.  I am always envious of the lightning photos I see from the west, especially from places like Phoenix.  They have these great sight lines where there are no obstructions for miles and miles and you can see individual thunderstorm cells from a great distance.  Down South we have our storms obstructed by the heavy tree cover and the lay of the land.  That means the lightning is all over you before you can really shoot photos.  My Dad will quickly tell you if you can hear thunder you are in danger of being hit by lightning.  (You can tell I have heard that one a few times!)  So safety has to top your list when shooting electrical storms.  The metal leg tripod is a wonderful conductor of electricity.

The final problem is, of course, the rain.  Because most storms in this part of the world are not simply there for my photographic pleasure it is important to shoot from cover of some kind.  This relates to not having great sight lines over distance.  If the lighting is close then the rain is close too and this means your multi-thousand dollar SLR is in danger of getting wet.  They don’t seem to like that too much.  And because the sight lines are limited that means shooting with a fairly wide angle lens which is much more susceptible to front element moisture than a hooded telephoto would be.  All in all, shooting lightning is not so easy.

Exposures are the other factor in the equation.  Here is a hint; allow the ambient light to dictate your exposure.  The most effective lightning pictures have other visual elements in them and you will usually be shooting at times after sunset.  My little out building was illuminated by a street light that was about 50 yards away.  The exposure for the building was between 10 and 15 seconds at f5.6 with an ISO of 400.  I bounced back and forth with the exposure between 10 and 15 seconds and moved my ISO around between 200 and 400 until I was relatively happy with the results.  Find your base ambient and work from that.  Your results will be far better than just guessing and hoping.

Once in a while I try shooting lightning in daylight.  This is borderline insane because about the best exposure you can hope for is 1/4 at f22 ISO 200 and that is with a particularly dark storm cloud late in the day.  It is really pot luck and catching a lighting bolt by reflex is close to impossible.  It happens to fast.  Once in a while you might get one if the lightning bolt is intense and hangs there for a little longer.  Of course when this happens you will be very close and you will be likely running for cover and miss the shot anyway.  Bottom line is lightning photos are great and beautiful but you must never forget that lightning kills more people annually than any other storm characteristic.  Let’s bet careful out there.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.

Austin's Jamael Johnson leaves the field during one of the periods of heavy rain as Austin battled Cullman Friday night in Ogle Stadium. Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. 10/30/09

The little kids rhyme, “Rain, rain go away, come again another day,” seems to be the thing that Alabamians are saying these days.  There have been few weeks this fall without rain and I mean a lot of rain.  That has made Friday night football a bit damp this year and has caused my kids soccer schedules to be shredded.  I know, soccer usually doesn’t care about the weather but the city of Hartselle is really fond of their new soccer fields and they are very protective.

What this means for photographers on the sidelines is we have to continually fight the moisture wars.  At the big venues like the college games I get to cover from time to time I see the big boys from Sports Illustrated and other fine organizations rolling out with those high tech rain covers with eye pieces that fit their cameras precisely.  Yeah, that would be nice.  Since The Daily has not seen fit to spend a few hundred dollars on rain covers my approach is decidedly low tech.  Lets just say that my rain covers would do the Beverly Hillbillies proud.

I usually pay a visit to the local Wal-Mart or grocery store and pick a box of trash bags.  Yep, you heard me right.  I am covering a $5,000 camera and $5,000 lens with a bag that can’t possibly cost even 50 cents.  I know what you are thinking so stow it!  (GRIN)  Really, the everyday trash bag has some decided advantages over the hundred dollar high tech fabric weather shield.

First of all, it is downright cheap.  Secondly, but more importantly, the things are completely impervious to water.  For those of you who don’t have a dictionary handy that means they keep the water out.  Thirdly, they can be easily manipulated to fit whatever lens-camera combo you are using, kind of the ultimate in one size fits all.  Fourthly, (is that even a word) they are cheap so if I lose one I don’t have to worry about going back to the boss and trying to explain how I lost a hundred dollar rain coat for the camera.  Fifthly, (now I am pretty sure I have gone beyond the bounds of English) MacGyver is my hero and I want to do him proud so a trash bag and a roll of gaffers tape would get a thumbs up.  Heck, he would probably fashion a parachute out of that much hardware!  Or a hang glider.  Finally, did I mention they come in black and white, and sometimes brown?  Fashionable and cheap, now there is a dynamic duo.

Cullman's Connor Adams evades a diving Austin kick off team player as Austin battled Cullman Friday night during a heavy rain storm in Ogle Stadium. Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. 10/30/09

Now there are some problems with the trash bag turned rain coat.  First of all you kind of look like a hick.  Secondly, you get a bit of an inferiority complex standing next to someone with that nice Aquatech with fitted eyepiece.  Thirdly, the thing flaps around a lot in a high wind.  Fourthly, (here I go again) it can be a little difficult to keep the little opening you have to tear for the eye piece actually over the camera’s eyepiece.  Fifthly, (did you know that when doing point and counter point that if you have a fifthly in your points you need a fifthly in your counter points even if you are not sure that fifthly is an actual word?) if water does get inside your bag it can really make a mess.  Finally, did I mention that you look a bit like a hick?

For you big spenders, there is an alternative to the garbage bag if that is just a little to ghetto for you.  You can buy a really cheap rain suit and then cut off the leg to the appropriate length using the gathered end over the lens and the open end over the camera.  I think you can buy those near disposable suits for a couple of bucks and they actually raise your status from ghetto to simply wrong side of the tracks.  You might even fool the unsuspecting newbie into asking where you got your slick rain cover.  Then you will really make MacGyver happy.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Y’all already know my love of clouds if you have been here any time at all.  One thing about northern Alabama in the Spring is that you will see some awesome displays in the skies.  We were having a rainy day Friday and it was just one of those flat gray rainy days, no real interest in the sky until about 4 pm.  I was suprised to hear a report of a tornado warning in Lauderdale and Limestone Counties on the scanner.  I did a quick check of the weather radar online and decided to rush to Athens and see what I could get.

My daughter Nikki was with me and we had a quick discussion about doing exactly what Dad says and exactly when he says it.  You know teenagers.  There  are times when they have an inconvenient mind of thier own.  Storm chasing can’t be one of those times.  She did very well and made a few photos herself and even ended up on the back page of The Decatur Daily against this awesome backdrop of clouds.

The sky, which had been an flat gray earlier in the day had become this amazing, bubbling mess on the southern edge of the approaching storm.  We began shooting along Highway 72 in Athens and then, as we heard storm spotter reports, worked our way back to the south.  The storm never produced anything more interesting than some awesome clouds but the rainfall was impressive by any standards.  It was raining so hard by the time we got back to Decatur we were driving 4o with flashers on.

Just remember when you are shooting storms that the primary danger from thunderstorms is not tornadoes or damaging winds.  Lightning strikes kill far more people than tornadoes do and lightning strikes are totally unpredictable.  If you are really interested in shooting storms, read up on thunderstorms as much as you can and learn how to approach one and where you can’t be.  There was one time where Nikki and I were shooting and the fast moving storm was about to box us in.  There were clouds hanging so low they were almost touching the ground to our east and an amazing display of cloud cover to our west and the line was fast approaching.  That was not a good place to be.  Aside from the potential for being in the “box” where we were between two strong areas where there were clearly some high winds, we were not in a good place because of the lightning.  Just be smart.

One of these days I am going to be in the right place at the right time and actually get a photo of a funnel cloud or a tornado on the ground.  Hopefully I will be following my own advice and be able to tell you all about it later.

My daughter Nikki shooting a picture near Mooresville Rd. in Limestone County.

Storm clouds envelope the sky over Calhoun Community College and Pryor Field near Decatur.

Athens Fire Station 2 is seen with a backdrop of storm clouds.

Storm clouds over Garrett Rd. in Limestone County.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.