Yesterday morning I was surfing here in California when a huge thunderstorm formed offshore and slowly moved toward the coast...I ran home to get my camera and ran back to the beach. I LOVE lightning photography so I thought I would give daytime lightning photography a try (which is very hard, for me at least). I was able to get several cool shots of the lightning so I called the photo editer of the OC Register (Californias 4th largest paper, circulation of over 300,000) They were interested and, to make a long story short, my shot was on the front page today! It was also on the front page of their website and one of their magazine publications. Anyways, thought I would share my excitement.
Sorry, I know this isn't from the northwest but I just wanted to share with fellow photographers.
Here is a link to a poor quality scan of the paper:http://www.moondogg.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/oc-register-front-page.jpg
You seem to have mastered daytime lightning photography with this excellent image. Care to share your exposure /camera settings? Did you use any lightning triggered shutter release?
Posted by Hans Hibbard on August 28, 2007 at 1:56 AM
Great shot Khristian. Your processing of those clouds is really cool.
Posted by Zack Schnepf on August 28, 2007 at 2:02 AM
Great shot indeed, I too would love to hear the particulars of how you captured this shot. Grats on getting this published as well.
Opps...I forgot to put my camera setting in my original post.
That particular shot was from my 30D, 17-40l, mounted on my beach towel for stabilization. I used f/22 to get the slowest shutter speed and I set the camera to do continuous shooting (5 frames a second). I shot Jpeg to get the longest burst because of its smaller file size. I would just hold down the shutter till I saw a bolt within the frame. I would then review the last few images and, If I captured a bold, I would go into the camera menu and "protect" it, and the delete all the shots with no lightning, so that I would save space on my memory card. This worked out perfect for me.
Shutter speed was 1/15, ISO 100,
Thanks you every one for the comments/compliments.
Posted by Hans Hibbard on August 28, 2007 at 1:52 PM
Perfect methodology Khristian! Seriously, I don't know why, but cool to hear that you just shot till you got it. Maybe just the perseverence and determination it takes to "do it the hard way."
Posted by Marc Adamus on August 28, 2007 at 2:08 PM
Great timing here, Khristian. Both to get the lightning shot and have it coinside so nicely with a feature story - good thinking to call the editor about it! Lightning on the Cali coast is a pretty rare event, as you know. You've certainly made the most of it!
Posted by Erik Lundh on August 28, 2007 at 3:33 PM
WOW,
Thats all I have to say!!!
Posted by Jeremy Cram on August 28, 2007 at 4:56 PM
Too cool man! Very nice job and congrats!
Posted by John Lehmkuhl on August 28, 2007 at 5:58 PM
Really sweet and congrats on the front page. Now get front page on a magazine with this and make some $$$ !!
i like the image you posted better than the one the paper chose.
i'm curious because i've never shot lightning, it often looks very purple on film, i see some purple around your lightning, did you correct that at all or is this pretty much what you got raw ?
Posted by Mike Stovall on August 30, 2007 at 7:03 PM
Frame that newspaper on your wall! Great job and congratulations!
Discussion
16 repliesSorry, I know this isn't from the northwest but I just wanted to share with fellow photographers.
Here is a link to a poor quality scan of the paper:http://www.moondogg.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/oc-register-front-page.jpg
That particular shot was from my 30D, 17-40l, mounted on my beach towel for stabilization. I used f/22 to get the slowest shutter speed and I set the camera to do continuous shooting (5 frames a second). I shot Jpeg to get the longest burst because of its smaller file size. I would just hold down the shutter till I saw a bolt within the frame. I would then review the last few images and, If I captured a bold, I would go into the camera menu and "protect" it, and the delete all the shots with no lightning, so that I would save space on my memory card. This worked out perfect for me.
Shutter speed was 1/15, ISO 100,
Thanks you every one for the comments/compliments.
- pradeep
Thats all I have to say!!!
i'm curious because i've never shot lightning, it often looks very purple on film, i see some purple around your lightning, did you correct that at all or is this pretty much what you got raw ?