Author Topic: Photography...........the way I see it (all images prior to 9/16/11)  (Read 150130 times)

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #75 on: August 04, 2011, 05:15:50 PM »
Although I have new pictures of other subjects, I'm only posting one picture this week because - as far as I'm concerned - there IS no other picture to post with this one. In my semi-humble opinion, it's probably one of the best pictures I have ever taken.

I've always wanted to get good shots of what I call "clean lightning" - lightning that is not obscured by rain, cloudiness, or any other meteorological condition. Big, heavy, forked bolts would be a major plus. Beautiful or well-known scenes backlit by the bolts would be almost too much to ask for.

Last Monday morning - August 1, 2011 - at just after 2am, I got all of that in this picture taken from home.

New York City was clear as can be, from the Empire State Building right down to the shimmering One World Trade Center building (which still has 28 floors to be added).

Right over Hackensack, the sky was clear and stars were visible. You can't ask for better conditions to photograph lightning.

Since it wasn't raining in Manhattan, the cloud and bolts may have been out over the ocean.

You can click on the image to see it larger and I would suggest doing so in a dark room or at night (or both) to see the interesting-looking cloud that generated this light show.

I really had trouble getting to sleep that night - very tired, but also very anxious to download the images and start working on them.

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Offline Editor

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #76 on: August 04, 2011, 05:35:59 PM »
Astounding.

Offline Skipx219

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #77 on: August 04, 2011, 05:36:15 PM »
Great shot !!!

Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #78 on: August 04, 2011, 06:14:04 PM »
Wow! Glad I wasn't on a plane following the East River approach into Laguardia.

What settings did you use on your camera for that shot?

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #79 on: August 04, 2011, 06:45:18 PM »
What settings did you use on your camera for that shot?

The compact (and tripod-ed) Canon SX130IS was set at 15 seconds, f8.0, ISO 80, manual focus.

When I was researching compact camera specs, I couldn't figure out how a little camera with no focusing ring could have manual focusing, but this one does and it's one of the main reasons I bought it. It's GREAT for fireworks that are too fast for auto-focus and anything that's far away, like Manhattan. Auto-focus always comes out worse - even for stationary objects like the Empire State Building.

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Offline just watching

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #80 on: August 04, 2011, 07:14:10 PM »

Definately awesome.

And what's interesting to me is the right bolt, and all the little small feeder bolts to it's right that seem to be feeding up into the main bolt.  There's literally an array of them.

Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #81 on: August 04, 2011, 07:21:37 PM »
That's pretty close to what I was figuring. Ol' Homer shoots with a D7000 and always turns off the autfocus and vibration reduction with tripod mounted distance shots. I was mostly interested with the time you used.
That photo is one you should submit to National Geographic, Popular Photography or other contest sponsors.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #82 on: August 04, 2011, 07:57:38 PM »
Almost forgot............it was on a 2-second shutter delay to eliminate blur (there's no remote available for it).

For what it's worth, it's much sharper than it appears to be here.

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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #83 on: August 11, 2011, 04:30:46 PM »
1. Rays

2. Party!

3. Musical meter

4. from St. Rocco's Feast, Ft Lee 8-7-11

5. Escape from the Middle School

6 - 10.  Another visit from the HFD (false alarm)

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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #84 on: August 18, 2011, 03:50:26 PM »
After all the rain this week, I'm going with a sequential meteorological theme:


1-2.  Sunday 8/14 - night ground reflections after the day's rain

3-7.  Monday 8/15 - clouds rolled in, it POURED, cool clouds after it cleared

8-10.  Tuesday 8/16 - cool clouds continued: over NYC, at sunset, and into the night


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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #85 on: September 01, 2011, 03:50:53 PM »
Lightning DOES strike twice! (this time in Hackensack)

This happened on August 18.

To get closeups of lightning, you have to zoom in on a small part of the horizon and hope that bolts strike at that spot while the shutter is open. Lightning was hitting periodically at various spots along the entire horizon and there were probably at least 50 spots like this one to zoom in on.

Of however many shots I took before the rain reached me, this was the only successful close one, but it's better than I could have hoped for. Going through a low cloud in multiple spots? I don't even think I saw the cloud until I downloaded the image.

My thanks to those of you who contacted me about buying a print of the NYC lightning photo. Not to spam this list (too much), but prints ARE available for many of the images I post.

Now if only I had the email addresses of everyone who lives in the buildings in this shot...................


« Last Edit: September 01, 2011, 03:57:08 PM by BLeafe »
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Offline irons35

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #86 on: September 01, 2011, 11:14:59 PM »
Bob,
 to reply to your email the buildings are left to right, 130, 150 and 160 Overlook.  there is a small piece of 140 Prospect visible between 150 and 160 Overlook.  it was easier to see them here.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #87 on: September 08, 2011, 04:00:06 PM »
 1. UFO

 2. Sunset 1

 3. Evil storm

 4. My underwater home

 5. Nick's picks: blue on blue

 6. Raptor

 7. Sunset 2

 8. #165 x 3 = bad scheduling

 9. Jaws

10. 8/17 Moonrise - 8/18 Sunset


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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #88 on: September 14, 2011, 03:25:08 PM »
 1. Sunset after Irene

 2. Sun roof

 3. Cloud carrier

 4. Just south of here on 8/20 (don't know whose they are)

 5. Fun, Fun, Fun (but Daddy took the T-Bird away)

 6. Sunset

 7. Treeneck as Irene exits

 8. Left turn onto Anderson St

 9. A human shadow casts its own shadow!

10. State St flooded...............by 3 emergency vehicles' lights

« Last Edit: September 14, 2011, 03:37:49 PM by BLeafe »
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Offline Editor

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Re: Photography...........the way I see it
« Reply #89 on: September 14, 2011, 07:51:30 PM »
Where was the human that made the first shadow?

 

anything