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Only took 12 Months… but I got my lightning shot…

One of the reasons I always wanted a DSLR was so that I could get photos of the weather… and in particular lightning.   The reason for that was the long exposure lengths that you can take.  (of course by long I am only looking at 15seconds….) but my D90 was the first camera I have had in over 10 years that could do that..

Now I did get one shot of lightning last year with the D90 (with an obscured view… grrr)…. but this weekend everything fitted into place….  And those things were… the storm was at night, I was awake when the storm happened and I knew it was coming so I could get somewhere with a good clear view.  I spent an hour waiting at the beach for these shots (a big thanks to Cat for waiting with me… sorry it took so long)  but just before the rain hit I managed to get a couple of nice clear bolts over the city.

so here they are… (click for bigger, these are really best viewed large)

Shot using my gorilla pod as a tripod at the Jetty at the end of North Road, Brighton.

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm
Exposure: 15s
Aperture: f/13.0
Focal Length: 11 mm
Exposure: -0.32
ISO Speed: 640
Exposure Program: Manual

Bolt of Melbourne 2

Bolt Over Melbourne

You will also notice on this shot how the water has bumps in it in the reflection of the lighting bolt.  Yet if you look to the left side of the image you will see that the water has smoothed out as it does from a standard 15second exposure.  The lighting flash is so bright as to burn that part of the image in stronger than that rest of the image.