Any Storm Chasers?

blandbland Posts: 812Member
edited February 2013 in General Discussions
Here's the 2013 outlook!

http://www.tornadotitans.com/tornado-season-2013-predictions/

I'm going to be giving my Nikon's some company this year by adding a GoPro HERO 3 to my dash.

Comments

  • macsavageg4macsavageg4 Posts: 75Member
    Once I get properly storm spotting trained I will probably look into actually doing some storm chasing. For now lightning shots off the front porch and if i can swing it take some lightning pictures near some of the wind farms out here in KS.
  • GitzoGitzo Posts: 174Member
    Once I get properly storm spotting trained I will probably look into actually doing some storm chasing. For now lightning shots off the front porch and if i can swing it take some lightning pictures near some of the wind farms out here in KS.
    Mac; I'd love to hear about your lightning photography; I'm "into" doing lightning too, but I don't do much from the front porch; about the second (or third) safest place to photograph lightning from, is a car; (but definitely NOT a convertible !) And even then, make sure to park the car at LEAST 5 miles or so from the storm. If you're ever in the market for a lightning trigger, check out the "NERO" (made in Lafayette, In.) it's a great unit. (very small, very light, and works great)
  • blandbland Posts: 812Member
    @macsavageg4 ~ A way to cheat at storm spotting is to spot the pro chasers like Reed Timmer instead of the storms. Then once we find them we follow them for the day. All the big time storm chasers put their GPS location out on their websites.
  • macsavageg4macsavageg4 Posts: 75Member
    I actually just got my Camera Axe (open source arduino based project) a proper light transistor that I have mounted on an eyepiece ring that should handle the auto firing. I still have some adjustments to make to the camera axe but it now triggers consistently with a short burst of increased light. I have some pics up on my flickr account which I will include in this post. I am planning on building an AM based pickup sensor setup to go with light sensor at some point to increase the likely hood of catching more shots. So far my current method has been low ISO, low shutter speed (1.5s or more), and way stopped down lens (This year shooting with my 20mm f/2.8 AI-s at around F16 or so depending on the ambient lighting). Anyway here is a link to my decent storm shots off the front and back porch thus far. The newest ones are with the D800 all the previous ones were with my D7000.

    My storm decent storm shots thus far.
  • NSXTypeRNSXTypeR Posts: 2,286Member
    edited September 2014
    I am not a storm chaser, but I do admire lightning.

    Finally got a good stab at it last night.

    DSC_4661

    Lots of luck, no tripod and 2s shutter speeds. Next time I should just set up the interval timer instead of stabbing away at the shutter...
    Post edited by NSXTypeR on
    Nikon D7000/ Nikon D40/ Nikon FM2/ 18-135 AF-S/ 35mm 1.8 AF-S/ 105mm Macro AF-S/ 50mm 1.2 AI-S
  • Rx4PhotoRx4Photo Posts: 1,200Member
    Living near the South Florida east coast, whenever there's a hurricane headed our way I love to go to the beach and try to capture some of the dramatic clouds and waves that tend to preceed the storm. Nothing so far this year ... and not really hoping for anything because wishing for a hurricane falls into that category of "be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it."
    D800 | D7000 | Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 | 24-70mm f/2.8 | 70-200mm f/2.8 | 35mm f/1.8G | 85mm f/1.4G | Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art | Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art | Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM | Zeiss 100mm Makro-Planar ZF.2 | Flash controllers: Phottix Odin TTL

  • NSXTypeRNSXTypeR Posts: 2,286Member
    Living near the South Florida east coast, whenever there's a hurricane headed our way I love to go to the beach and try to capture some of the dramatic clouds and waves that tend to preceed the storm. Nothing so far this year ... and not really hoping for anything because wishing for a hurricane falls into that category of "be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it."
    No lightning though...? :D

    I was just wondering, for those of you who shoot lightning, what settings are you guys using? I was going to use something longer, but metering might be a bit weird for such super long exposures.

    I was using a 2 second exposure at an aperture of 4 or so at ISO 400 at 18mm on DX for my shot above.
    Nikon D7000/ Nikon D40/ Nikon FM2/ 18-135 AF-S/ 35mm 1.8 AF-S/ 105mm Macro AF-S/ 50mm 1.2 AI-S
  • scoobysmakscoobysmak Posts: 215Member
    I think this is my best lighting shot I have had, taken a few years back at South Palm Beach. I think this is in the old forum PAD as well. I did the 5 second tripod shot, just got lucky but the lighting that night was pretty active so figured I would get something.

    photo _0003.jpg
  • NSXTypeRNSXTypeR Posts: 2,286Member
    I actually just got my Camera Axe (open source arduino based project) a proper light transistor that I have mounted on an eyepiece ring that should handle the auto firing. I still have some adjustments to make to the camera axe but it now triggers consistently with a short burst of increased light. I have some pics up on my flickr account which I will include in this post. I am planning on building an AM based pickup sensor setup to go with light sensor at some point to increase the likely hood of catching more shots. So far my current method has been low ISO, low shutter speed (1.5s or more), and way stopped down lens (This year shooting with my 20mm f/2.8 AI-s at around F16 or so depending on the ambient lighting). Anyway here is a link to my decent storm shots off the front and back porch thus far. The newest ones are with the D800 all the previous ones were with my D7000.

    My storm decent storm shots thus far.
    Nice shots!

    The biggest problem is figuring out and guessing where the lightning will strike. So your Camera Axe just points the camera automatically at the lightning? Does it set exposure too?
    I think this is my best lighting shot I have had, taken a few years back at South Palm Beach. I think this is in the old forum PAD as well. I did the 5 second tripod shot, just got lucky but the lighting that night was pretty active so figured I would get something.

    Yeah, there's a lot of guesswork involved. I got pretty lucky.
    Nikon D7000/ Nikon D40/ Nikon FM2/ 18-135 AF-S/ 35mm 1.8 AF-S/ 105mm Macro AF-S/ 50mm 1.2 AI-S
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