That's it: my Em1.2 is gone before I destroy it.

Dan wrote:

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I would like to learn from your experiences shooting lightning however.

To date when I shoot it, it's typically from my garage and hence a very "limited" view!

When shooting from a car how exactly do you do it? With a window down, with the back "van door" up, or through a window? If shooting thru the window doesn't it's "thickness" and rain drops screw everything up? How long of an exposure to help capture the surroundings and how do you keep things steady?

Thanks in advance for sharing your method...I'm assuming it's raining since that seems to be the case here all the time in Iowa of the United States of America.

Thanks again.

Dan

What is the situation? That is the question.

In a heavy downpoor I clam the camera body to on the dashboard and use a 10 second exposure, so I stay inside the car. Screenwipes are not really a problem then. After ten seconds I push again and again. Until lightning gets registered. That works well when it is dark, you need to clam it down and ptrevent it from moving. An alternative is a very small tripod like I have and just click. Better is an external shutter release in that case (you can buy them for 10 euro or so). No movement. Olympus Live Composite will work well under those circumstances btw.

Best situation is a storm that is not on top of you. So there is little rain or wind. Put the thing on a tripod outside the car. Suppose the lightning is 5-10 km away and there is no curtain of rain between you and the area with the most strikes...the shots will be great surely in a flat country side with little or no obstacles of course. I think Iowa is relatively flat and not too much woodland aroud or at least enough open spaces.

Keep a keen eye on the weather. Gustfronts are very common under huge storms. You can see it coming looking at dust on the ground that is picked up, or the shape of the cloud coming towards you. Your tripod with cam will be blow away...Of course tornado's can be associated with such storms as well and large hail, that will also damage your gear is another thing to be aware of.

Where I live in The Netherlands these are all common and this is surely also the case in Iowa being in or very near Tornado Alley. So you need to watch out carefully. I bet soon enough lightning is nice, but the shape of the clouds and colours will be another thing you'll like to picture.

Some examples, some of which were used by the Dutch national media btw, are from such a situation where a storm that first produced a tornado went from inflow to outflow (strong gustfront) and after some time got me a great lightning show from 5-10 km distance.

Finally: I would advise you to buy this trigger in which case you can leave the cam on a tripod outside of the car and sit inside while the trigger is doing the work for you. When thunder is heard within 30 seconds of a lightning bolt it is advised to seek shelter in a safe place, a car being a good one. A house can be too of course.

Very good triggers!

I have the multimode trigger which just requires a standard USB cable of any modern Samsung phone to be charged. Can also be charged in the car but it lasts for 100+ hours.

The low edge of the cloud with this shape (an arcus) is a strong indicator for outflow which means a lot of wind, going from zero to 50-100+ km/h when it passes (it is very sudden).

This was shot from behind the carscreen so it is pretty doable. Clammed down btw, not on a small tripod.

Hope this helps!