Epic Anniversary Storm

Well my wife and I went in to have dinner at the beach for our 23rd wedding anniversary yesterday evening.   We were sitting peacefully at Nightcliff watching the sunset when I heard some angry distant rumbling behind us...  alas the mother of all storms was advancing from the east!

Well we ducked into town to Fisherman's Wharf to get a better view and it really was an awesome sight.  The bureau sent out a Severe Thunderstorm Warning as it had some pretty wild winds and lightning associated with it.

Pity about the rain on the lens for this one!

Storm season is kicking in!

Got up at 2.30am this morning when I heard some distant thunder and headed into Nightcliff.  Got some keepers as a little storm went by just off the coast.

Bayview Strike

Got my best close-up lightning capture just before dawn this morning.  Was awoken by thunder at around 5am and saw on the radar that it would be a home in Palmerston within 10 minutes or so.  I decided to try and get ahead of it a bit and rushed into town and ended up at Fishermens Wharf. 

Got a few ok shots as it came in but nothing really good.  I had horizontal drizzle straight at me wetting the lens and decided to pack up.  I was just driving out when I noticed the rain eased a bit and a big bolt landed to the north of me.  I grabbed the tripod out again, didn't even extend the legs and setup as quick as I could and got this one good bolt before the really heavy rain chased me back into the car.  I could put the camera side-on to the wind for this shot so water drops on the lens wasn't such an issue.

Wound the aperture all the way to F18 as I knew it would be very bright - and the exposure was perfect.  Luckily it was as I was somehow accidentally in jpeg mode and not RAW as I normally am - forgot to check that as I rarely change that setting!

At F18 it sure highlighted all the dust spots on my sensor with the big depth of field - so I had to clean up the image somewhat - also added a bit of contrast.  This shot is not cropped except for a bit of tilt to fix a slightly crooked horizon.

East Arm Bolt

Just got this down at East Arm...  was the only bolt I saw and was about to pack up when it sprung out in front of me.  *Yawn* time for bed!

East Point Crawler

Took this in the early hours of Saturday morning from the Museum boat ramp.  I missed a few as a lot of drizzle fell at the back end of the storm as it went over the water and it was too wet to try and take photos outside the car.

First lightning photo of the season

Noonamah Bolt

I went for a drive tonight and got this distant bolt from Noonamah.  The shot is heavily cropped and taken with a 120mm lens.  I set the camera to manual for a 30 second exposure at F5 and 100 ISO to keep the noise down.  The grass in the foreground is lit up by the carpark lights near me which I think adds a nice bit of background.

Lightning Arch

Lightning Arch over Darwin Waterfront

Been a bit slack lately folks and even this one was an unplanned shot.  My wife and I went to our son Daniel's year 12 graduation at the Convention Centre and saw this on the way when we were leaving for the car.  I didn't have my camera with me but had borrowed my sister's camera (as I only have wide angle lenses not suitable for taking pics at a party).  Lucky I had the tripod in the car and I got a dozen or so shots of some nice lightning.  This was a 30 second exposure at around F8 I think - at ISO100.

My first lightning captures of the season

These taken today around Noonamah as I met up with a few "stormchasers".  We were to meet at Noonamah and decide where to go from there when the action got pretty good right there!