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Missing from the EXIF: Monstering Melbourne

Must say it is nice to have 10 min to myself to finally update the blog with a non Wolfcatcubs related photo and Behind the Exif Blog Post.

So this is the story of this image…

Monstering Melbourne

I’ll break down the day as it happened as was planned.  Now Melbourne is not known for its tropical storms.  This is both good and bad for me.  Good as I hate humidity and the last few days in Melbourne have been torture, but very bad for taking storm photos. The BOM had been saying for a few days that big storms were due.  So the night before involved checking all the gear, making sure the camera was charged, the Solmeta GPS was charged and the cards were emptied.  Nothing worse than a rare storm event and not having something right 🙂

The above radar image shows the time I left home. I’d been watching the weather all day and had a rough idea on when it was due, seeing this cell and its track meant I knew it would miss me, but it would provide some good shots.

Lucky for me, there was a second cell on the radar.  The second cell was the one that I would get my shot from.  The first cell did provide some nice outflow clouds and I saw a few lightning bolts, but nothing on camera.

There were a number of people down at my fav location.  The trusty End of North Road location.  The advantage of heading here was that I knew how to look at the radar on my HTC Incredible S in comparison to my location which told me to stay longer than the first cell passing as well.

So with all the gear set up, I was ready for the storm.  The second radar image is approx when the shot was taken.

And thus here is the gear as the storm moved in.
The setup for "monstering Melbourne"

It was also the first time I got to test out my new tripod the Manfrotto MT294A3 290 with 804RC2 Head.  Must say it worked a treat even in the strong outflow winds.  (Look at the strap on the camera)

The shot is taken on manual mode to address the issue of the balance from the dark side of the image under the cloud with the bright side of the sun coming through.

Post processing consisted on a small lens correction and crop, with a touch of a graduated filter to address the slightly over exposed right side of the image.

As the storm got closer I timed the run back to the car with about 1/2 second to spare. Whilst the D7000 is listed as water resistant, the Tokina 11-16mm and the Solmeta GPS Pro aren’t. Further given the solid wall of rain that was coming sideways, I’m sure the D7000 would not have coped.

So days of planning went into this shot, and oh yeah mother nature help as well 🙂

This shot is now my most popular on flickr for favs and comments…  so thanks to all of your for the comments.

 

And of course you can buy this image as well ( just think Xmas is coming 🙂  )

 

And the EXIF Data

Camera Nikon D7000
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 11 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
Software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.5 (Windows)
Exposure Program Manual
Date and Time (Original) 2011:11:09 18:42:47
Exposure Mode Manual
White Balance Auto
Digital Zoom Ratio 1
Focal Length In35mm Format 16 mm
Scene Capture Type Standard
GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 54.02″ S
GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 4.71″ E
GPS Altitude Ref Above Sea Level
GPS Altitude 10 m
GPS Time Stamp 07:42:44
GPS Satellites 10