Photography Adventure: Storm Chasing

Spring has sprung and with it comes storms, big ones. YAY. I don't remember ever looking forward to storms as much as I do since I learned to photograph them. Tip #1, use a single lens reflex (SLR) camera (the kind you can change the lenses on).

The best case scenario for storm photography is when the storm is in the distance and there is a lot of lighting. You may be tempted to try taking pictures of lighting by waiting until you see it and then pushing the button but forget it, you will never get a lighting picture doing that. The phrase lightning fast was invented for a reason. Some people have had success using slow shutter speeds, leaving the shutter open for a long time, but the best way is using bulb mode.

Tip 2: do this on a digital SLR. Bulb mode enables the shutter to stay open as long as you hold down the button. The process is, press the button, wait several seconds, if no lighting has struck by then delete the image and do it again. The longer the shutter is open the more ambient light is sucked in so the brighter the image gets and the less contrast between the lighting and the black night and clouds. So the best shot will be one in which you pressed the button, the lightning fired, and you released it right away. With that in mind it is feasible to get a good shot with a slow shutter speed, but I still prefer the control of bulb mode. The reason to use digital is because you can delete the failed attempts and keep going. You could waste a heck of a lot of film trying to do this on a film camera.

Tip 3: Use a tripod and a cable release. It is usually dark when lightning strikes, the darker the better. Anytime you are working in low to no light situations, with the shutter open for long periods of time, any movement of the camera will cause a blurry picture. The tripod will stabilize the camera. The cable release allows you to take the picture without touching the camera, thus no shake created by pushing down the button.

A few days ago I was lucky enough to be at Bee Tree Park overlook when a storm rolled in over Illinois just as the sun set. I was able to make a nice panoramic of the storm. There are 9 pictures merged with photostitch in this image (no lighting in the panoramic so don't squint trying to find it). I especially like the fact that you can see the storm from a side view, inclusive of the end of the storm. After the sunset the lightning show began. The lightning was very intermittent, so it wasn't easy getting a good shot. Plus I was racing the clock to get the shot before the park rangers locked me in or kicked me out. The vertical lighting shot was from that day. The horizontal was one I took last year with the car window tripod.

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