Weekend in Austin, TX - Lightning and Sunset pics

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):









After a bit at one spot, I moved to another spot. I ran into
another photographer who was shooting lightning too! We had a
good conversation for 15 minutes or so, and he gave me his card
(he's a professional who shoots for the UT sports department).

The storm had moved through Austin at this point, so I started
following it East back towards my Dad's. I knew of a neat Church
on the way in a little town called Elgin, so I stopped there:





I next headed towards a cool spot with a graveyard and watertower
in the background. I was worried about getting in trouble with the
police at this point, as it was around 2 am in the morning. One
did drive by (those are his headlights in the pic), but he didn't
stop:



My final stop of the night came as the storm flared up for around
10 minutes. I finally found a somewhat interesting place to stop
and shoot this:



I then headed home and went to bed, as all of the activity had
stopped. Wheh! Long day. ;-)

The next evening, there were similar coniditions, so I headed to
Austin right after dinner. There ended up being no storms, but I
did get a couple of good shots near sunset:





So, that was my weekend. How was yours?

James

--
Check out my photos at:
http://home.comcast.net/~langfords
http://www.pbase.com/jamesl

Click to expand...

Brian Cao said:

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away).

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):

Click to expand...

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):

Click to expand...

Brian Cao said:

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):









After a bit at one spot, I moved to another spot. I ran into
another photographer who was shooting lightning too! We had a
good conversation for 15 minutes or so, and he gave me his card
(he's a professional who shoots for the UT sports department).

The storm had moved through Austin at this point, so I started
following it East back towards my Dad's. I knew of a neat Church
on the way in a little town called Elgin, so I stopped there:





I next headed towards a cool spot with a graveyard and watertower
in the background. I was worried about getting in trouble with the
police at this point, as it was around 2 am in the morning. One
did drive by (those are his headlights in the pic), but he didn't
stop:



My final stop of the night came as the storm flared up for around
10 minutes. I finally found a somewhat interesting place to stop
and shoot this:



I then headed home and went to bed, as all of the activity had
stopped. Wheh! Long day. ;-)

The next evening, there were similar coniditions, so I headed to
Austin right after dinner. There ended up being no storms, but I
did get a couple of good shots near sunset:





So, that was my weekend. How was yours?

James

--
Check out my photos at:
http://home.comcast.net/~langfords
http://www.pbase.com/jamesl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Rommaker said:

Rommaker said:

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away).

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Rommaker
http://www.pbase.com/rommaker
http://www.momentsnoticed.com

'A wife and a steady job has
ruined many a great photographer.' - me

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Todd Walker said:

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):

Click to expand...

Excellent shots James. Hey, you could send the one with the
graveyard to George Norry (www.coasttocoastam.com) -- he is the guy
who replaced Art Bell in case you aren't familiar. Tell him that
the spooky red light at the bottom of the gravestone on the bottom
left of the picture wasn't visible when you took it but you did
feel an eerie "presence" as you took the picture ;-)

--
Todd Walker
Canon 10D
28-70/2.8L, 80-200/2.8L, 50/1.8
Sony F707
http://www.toddwalker.net
http://www.twphotography.net
http://www.pbase.com/twalker294

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terdonal said:

Nice work and a long day from the sounds of it. What some people
won't do

Terry
http://www.pbase.com/terdonal
dpreview supporter
pbase supporter

Click to expand...

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):









After a bit at one spot, I moved to another spot. I ran into
another photographer who was shooting lightning too! We had a
good conversation for 15 minutes or so, and he gave me his card
(he's a professional who shoots for the UT sports department).

The storm had moved through Austin at this point, so I started
following it East back towards my Dad's. I knew of a neat Church
on the way in a little town called Elgin, so I stopped there:





I next headed towards a cool spot with a graveyard and watertower
in the background. I was worried about getting in trouble with the
police at this point, as it was around 2 am in the morning. One
did drive by (those are his headlights in the pic), but he didn't
stop:



My final stop of the night came as the storm flared up for around
10 minutes. I finally found a somewhat interesting place to stop
and shoot this:



I then headed home and went to bed, as all of the activity had
stopped. Wheh! Long day. ;-)

The next evening, there were similar coniditions, so I headed to
Austin right after dinner. There ended up being no storms, but I
did get a couple of good shots near sunset:





So, that was my weekend. How was yours?

James

--
Check out my photos at:
http://home.comcast.net/~langfords
http://www.pbase.com/jamesl

Click to expand...

weaver14 said:

James,
I was just wondering what lens or lenses you used for these great
shots, also, if you dont mind sharing, what were some of the specs
on the shots (iso, shutter speed, AV, and any post processing that
you did). Thanx

Click to expand...

bbailey said:

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

JamesL said:

Thanks! For most of these, I used my 20mm prime. I also used my
28-135 for a few. For shooting lightning, I use the camera on a
tripod and my intervometer remote. I set the remote to keep taking
exposures of something interesting in the forground that has
lightning behind it. Generally, my exposures are around F8 and 10
seconds. It depends on the scene, though. When I get multiple
shots of the same scene with lightning in them, I layer them in
Photoshop using "Lighten".

Hope that helps,

James

weaver14 said:

James,
I was just wondering what lens or lenses you used for these great
shots, also, if you dont mind sharing, what were some of the specs
on the shots (iso, shutter speed, AV, and any post processing that
you did). Thanx

Click to expand...

--
Check out my photos at:
http://home.comcast.net/~langfords
http://www.pbase.com/jamesl

Click to expand...

Alex57 said:

JamesL said:

Thanks! For most of these, I used my 20mm prime. I also used my
28-135 for a few. For shooting lightning, I use the camera on a
tripod and my intervometer remote. I set the remote to keep taking
exposures of something interesting in the forground that has
lightning behind it. Generally, my exposures are around F8 and 10
seconds. It depends on the scene, though. When I get multiple
shots of the same scene with lightning in them, I layer them in
Photoshop using "Lighten".

Hope that helps,

James

weaver14 said:

James,
I was just wondering what lens or lenses you used for these great
shots, also, if you dont mind sharing, what were some of the specs
on the shots (iso, shutter speed, AV, and any post processing that
you did). Thanx

Click to expand...

--
Check out my photos at:
http://home.comcast.net/~langfords
http://www.pbase.com/jamesl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

JamesL said:

I think I spelled that wrong. I use the TC-80N3. Expensive,
but works great.

Click to expand...

Chris Schur said:

Beautiful night shots. I just got my 10D last week, and have not
tried night shooting yet, do you have any suggestions to improve my
chances of success?

JamesL said:

Hi All,

I went down to my Dad's this weekend. He lives near Austin, TX (30
minutes away). When I got to his place at 9:00 pm, I noticed on
the radar that there were a bunch of thunderstorms headed right
towards Austin. I waved hi to my Dad, dropped off my wife so she
could hit the sack, and headed to Austin. When I got there, I went
to my favorite spot to shoot the skyline. There was tons of
lightning, but it was all behind the clouds. Here's a few of my
better shots (All were shot with my 10D and 20mm lens or 28-135
lens.):









After a bit at one spot, I moved to another spot. I ran into
another photographer who was shooting lightning too! We had a
good conversation for 15 minutes or so, and he gave me his card
(he's a professional who shoots for the UT sports department).

The storm had moved through Austin at this point, so I started
following it East back towards my Dad's. I knew of a neat Church
on the way in a little town called Elgin, so I stopped there:





I next headed towards a cool spot with a graveyard and watertower
in the background. I was worried about getting in trouble with the
police at this point, as it was around 2 am in the morning. One
did drive by (those are his headlights in the pic), but he didn't
stop:



My final stop of the night came as the storm flared up for around
10 minutes. I finally found a somewhat interesting place to stop
and shoot this:



I then headed home and went to bed, as all of the activity had
stopped. Wheh! Long day. ;-)

The next evening, there were similar coniditions, so I headed to
Austin right after dinner. There ended up being no storms, but I
did get a couple of good shots near sunset:





So, that was my weekend. How was yours?

James

--
Check out my photos at:
http://home.comcast.net/~langfords
http://www.pbase.com/jamesl

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

wayneboy said:

Awesome shots and cool story. Keep'em coming.

--------------------------------------
wayneboy
Big Hawaiian Guy w/828

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