Tag: Weather

Playing and Learning

I have always been fascinated with weather photography, especially pictures of lightning. Sadly, I’ve never quite mastered the art. I fully accept that a large portion of that is a lack of actual knowledge and little effort on my part to relieve myself of that lack through research and experimentation. I have played and not gotten a lot of good results, but I haven’t played enough. I honestly do better with the long exposure nighttime playing than anything, but even those haven’t been that great.

With the amazing number of storms we’ve had lately, I got off my lazy butt and made a few half-hearted attempts, none of them producing anything worth sharing. When storms rolled through yesterday, I thought it was the perfect opportunity, but I didn’t want to set up my tripod only to have to yank it all down quickly because I had no clue if the storms were going to start dropping rain and I wasn’t in a protected area. My timing was shit and I invariably missed either seconds behind a bolt of lightning or seconds before. I have a ton of shots of some lovely clouds, but none of actual lightning.

I then remember BG saying something about getting a really cool image out of a video on her phone. I know my new camera can also do video, but I never made the effort to really play with that and didn’t even know how to take a video, let alone what to do to pull an image off one. I decided to try and I figured it out. And holy crap! I am really liking this ability.

Lightning From The Storm
Lightning From The Storm

Not that any of these are truly amazing shots, but… they have given me an incredible stepping off point to play in the future.

Lightning From The Storm
Lightning From The Storm

I need to do a bit more research and playing to ensure that the quality of these images are as good as a normal still, but I’m kind of impressed with what I got yesterday.

Lightning From The Storm
Lightning From The Storm

I will be doing lots of playing with this in the future and not just with the lightning shots. BG suggested doing this for recital photography so maybe I won’t miss some of the poses she would have liked for me to capture, but missed in between shots. I’m also going to see how well this plays with my other lenses in interesting conditions like wind. Really, it is like I was given a new toy.

One of Those Days… Updated*

Today is trying really hard to be a grumpy day. I feel like that has been me a lot lately, which is frustrating because I try really hard not to be so negative. I can see the positives in today in that even though we are soggy as all hell and you can’t walk in the yard without sinking a couple of inches into what is beginning to look more like a swamp, we are safe, our house is whole, and we didn’t get a flooded basement like I suspect some of our lower lying neighbors did. Some people not that far from me cannot say the same this morning and what is making me grumpy is petty whining in comparison.

Continue reading “One of Those Days… Updated*”

More Storms

The rain finally broke yesterday afternoon and it cleared off for a couple of hours before the storms blew up again. Thankfully, they did so after only a brief downpour here, but I got to watch the clouds forming off to our northeast.

Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds

I have always found it fascinating to watch clouds, especially storm clouds. This massive storm kept billowing up, higher and wider, building on itself. You could watch those edges just continue to roll and grow.

Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds

I didn’t get any of these with the houses for context other than a small roof peak here and there, but this was a massive beast. I no longer have quite the clear view I used to because of all of those houses, but I still have a decent enough gap in certain areas to still be able to get some good pictures.

Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds

It was close to sunset so there was some really interesting lighting going on, but it wasn’t quite close enough to create more stunning colors. Still, it was amazing to watch. And, I was really glad we didn’t get any more rain last night. Sadly, I think the next round it due to hit later today and they are calling for another doozy with a potential for upwards of another 7 inches or so.

Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds

Storm Clouds

BG had one of her final dance classes last night. It was a long one, so I planned on dropping her off instead of staying like normal, but she ended up feeling really crummy. To be on the safe side in case she wanted to leave, I needed to stay. I took my book to keep me busy, but at the last minute, I grabbed my camera, too. Her studio isn’t exactly in a pretty area, so this was totally a whim thing. I am so glad I did.

Continue reading “Storm Clouds”

Storms And Rainbows

I love storms. The crazy looking clouds. The lightning. The rain (most times). Pretty much everything. Hubby and I joke that when we retire we are going to go storm chasing. Think of all the cool photo opportunities! Sadly, I need to get a whole hell of a lot better at taking pictures of storms before that can happen. I got a little practice the other day after the all day storm finally broke. We got a stunning full double rainbow right out my back door and I managed to get some of the best rainbow pics I’ve ever taken. Which, considering I was battling keeping my camera dry, keeping the back door open and the cats in while jockeying for position with BG trying to do the same, is damn near miraculous in itself.

Rainbow
Rainbow
Double Rainbow
Double Rainbow

I also managed to obliterate the total number of photos I took over the entire year last year with this grouping. I didn’t hit 1k images (only counting nature shots) until late fall last year. The below photo was my number 1k for this year and we JUST hit May.

Orange Gold Storm Clouds
Orange Gold Storm Clouds

While the coloring in the cloud shots was a little off, it really wasn’t off by much.

Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds

Quirkiness of Nature

This fall/winter has been odd to say the least. We get crazy, record setting cold temps including record setting snows in November. December? Maybe a dusting of snow really early and mostly normal temps, but brushing up against the warm side one day and dropping to frigid the next. Now that we are in January, I’m already sick of it, which is really out of whack for me as it is barely, technically at the start of the season. I want some snow or I want spring. At this point, I’d kinda take either.

And Again

As pretty as the last snowfall was, it didn’t last longer than a day. The temps stayed cold, but the snow was gone. Now we are getting another round. It’s kinda crazy. It is really unusual for us to get anything measurable before Thanksgiving, but we got our first one before Halloween (that one might have broken a record) and we’ve already had a second since then and it looks like we might be working on a third today. It’s going to be one hell of a winter.

Fall?

I think we skipped it. We have already had a measurable snow. Not a ton, but measurable. We are also stupidly cold for being in the middle of October, including already having freeze warnings. But hey! I get to really test out the new furnace. I just hope it doesn’t completely kill off my mums that are JUST starting to bloom.