| THUNDER AND LIGHTNING |
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| (or, I'd rather not be flying!) |
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The earth's weather has a tremendous amount of energy, and you don't always want to be in it. However, it can make for surreal and spectacular photography, some of which looks like it's from another planet! Click on the thumbnails for the full size image.
| Houston Gulf - 8th April 2000 |
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People might think I'm mad scrambling out of bed at 1 am, racing down to the airport with a camera and tripod, and alternately cowering under the club house porch, or the Cessna 170's wing, and taking photographs. This storm was particularly loud, and the lightning was flashing more than once every thirty seconds. We seldom get storms like this at night in this area.
This is my first attempt at photographing a storm. It's all guesswork - I used a 30 second exposure, 400 ISO film, and apertures from f11 to f22. In retrospect, I should have used wider apertures - some of the photographs were far too dark, even though a tongue of lightning was caught dead center in the shot. I'll know for next time! The shots were taken with a Nikon N-60 single lens reflex camera with a 28-70mm lens on Kodacolor Gold 35mm film.
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A tongue of lightning jumps between the clouds. |
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The sky is lit a surreal shade of purple as lightning illuminates its broiling depths. |
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Scud is silhouetted by the violence of the storm in the clouds above, as I take shelter beneath the wing of the Cessna 170. |
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It's all over. Looking to the north, the lights of Houston illuminate the remaining clouds. |