Bit of a storm

I wasn't going to bother with the storm because I was so tired, but it dragged on and on. The rain was really heavy too and even the plastic canopy would not protect the camera from this downfall, with water splashing everywhere. Eventually the main storm, which cut the electricity for a couple of minutes, passed but lightening strikes were still occurring, I was now wide awake so I decided to have a go.

When you dash out in the middle of the night to do 30 sec lightening shots, you should remember to turn the ISO down after the badminton session that you shot earlier, also focusing helps too!

It is strange how the strikes happen when you are adjusting the camera angle or just after the shutter has closed or when you are waiting for that extremely slow car to pass. Still, I managed to capture three decent strikes. I'm happy, but kicking myself about the ISO and focus.

The best strike had three main bolts and lots of branches, but the ISO destroyed it and grossly over exposed the image. The other good strike was destroyed by the volume of traffic that came passed now that the rain had stopped. I put them in folio anyway if you want to have a look. I struggled to decide which to blip and went for the over exposed multi-strike in the end.

Storms at night are quite rare, normally happening between 4pm and 7pm, so my morning insect safaris are rarely interrupted by weather and because I blip early, I never get rain blips.

I read once that Kuala Lumpur is the most lightening struck city in the world and I can believe it. It seemed there was a light show every night. Often branching bolts running right across the sky, but no sound or rain, now that would be a blip and a half!

It has been about thirty years since I last attempted a lightening shot, while on holiday in Corfu, so go easy on me. It is great to finally have a digital camera that will do exposures of more than two seconds and I can't wait to have another go.

Dave