Lightning, Frogs and Meteors, Oh My!

[JeffColburn]

Wow, what a night. A thunderstorm rolled into my area late Friday night, so I grabbed my gear and headed out the door at midnight.

I went to my first shooting spot; I had already scouted out several locations in the daylight, and was amazed. For the first twenty minutes, almost every photo I took had lightening in it. As the storm moved, so did I. I went from one spot to another following the action. At 1:00 am I wound up in a cemetery, where I could shoot the last of the storm while being serenaded by dozens of frogs.

As I stood in the cemetery I also saw two meteors (shooting stars). One was the usual white streak in the sky, but the other was really amazing. It was an Emerald ball of fire that fell almost straight down. As it fell, pieces of green fire broke off and trailed behind the meteor. From my vantage point, it looked like the meteor burned up just 100 feet away, and 20 feet above the ground. That’s probably not true, but it sure was amazing to watch. What a fantastic night.

Have Fun,
Jeff

[wolfnowl]

Nice work!  Seeing those images reminded me of something out of my past - I hope you don't mind an anecdote:

A 'few' years ago when I was in school I had various commitments that basically meant I had my own key to the college's darkrooms.  I used to bulk load most of my own film, etc.  Anyway, one night I was stationed under a bridge making images of a wonderful thunderstorm as it passed through.  The next day I went into the darkroom and loaded that roll onto a spool, set it down, and began loading a second roll of film.  This was done in complete darkness of course, and I was having some trouble getting the beginning of the roll to catch on the metal reel.  Eventually I gave up in frustration and decided to get another reel.  I tossed the film into a drawer and went over and turned on the lights... looking back at the roll of film with all of the lightning shots that was still sitting on the counter.  Every one an award-winning image too.  How do you spell 'Oops'?  Tossed that roll of film in the garbage, turned off the lights again and loaded the second, safe roll of film onto that reel instead.

Mike.

[Greg Campbell]

Hi again, Jeff.

I'd say you need to get back out there!
We're all waiting for your upcoming "Tornado, lightning, meteor, volcano and solar eclipse" shot.   
Get busy!   

It's good to see lightning of any sort this year.  Keep up the good work!

-Greg

[Panorama]

   All I see is 3 small jpegs that appear to be severely underexposed, even for night photography.

 Is there supposed to be something to see here that I'm missing? Is there a link to the real images?

[JeffColburn]

A 'few' years ago when I was in school I had various commitments that basically meant I had my own key to the college's darkrooms.  I used to bulk load most of my own film, etc.  Anyway, one night I was stationed under a bridge making images of a wonderful thunderstorm as it passed through.  The next day I went into the darkroom and loaded that roll onto a spool, set it down, and began loading a second roll of film.  This was done in complete darkness of course, and I was having some trouble getting the beginning of the roll to catch on the metal reel.  Eventually I gave up in frustration and decided to get another reel.  I tossed the film into a drawer and went over and turned on the lights... looking back at the roll of film with all of the lightning shots that was still sitting on the counter.  Every one an award-winning image too.  How do you spell 'Oops'?  Tossed that roll of film in the garbage, turned off the lights again and loaded the second, safe roll of film onto that reel instead.

Mike.

Oh man, that's gotta hurt.

Have Fun,
Jeff

[JeffColburn]

Hi again, Jeff.

I'd say you need to get back out there!
We're all waiting for your upcoming "Tornado, lightning, meteor, volcano and solar eclipse" shot.   
Get busy!   

It's good to see lightning of any sort this year.  Keep up the good work!

-Greg

I'd love to shoot some tornadoes. And volcanoes, with lava spewing, I'd love that. I tried to shoot the meteor shower earlier this month but didn't get any images, but I do have photos of two different lunar eclipses. Solar eclipses will be next.

Have Fun,
Jeff