Lightening Storm

[ben306]

At about 7.30-8.00pm the darkest clouds ever moved in over Toronto

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/My%20365/Storm1JPG.jpg

Then within minutes the best light show I have ever seen kicked in. It was still going on when I went to bed at 11.30.

The power of Mother Nature is awesome.

Found it hard work getting photos but these are the better ones.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/My%20365/Light5.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/My%20365/Light4.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/My%20365/light3.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/My%20365/light2.jpg

And the CN Tower being hit

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/My%20365/Light1JPG.jpg

Also got a few short videos

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/Canada%202009/th_Lightening2.jpg (http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/Canada%202009/?action=view&current=Lightening2.flv)

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/Canada%202009/th_Lightening1.jpg (http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Ben306/Canada%202009/?action=view&current=Lightening1.flv)

And a friend of mine managed to get a few from his balcony

http://picasaweb.google.ca/jovicaleksandar/ThunderstormToronto090809#

[Woody]

Gobsmacked mate!

[Master Basser]

Nice job Ben, you had a great view of the storm, it was awsome...I watch from my 3`rd floor deck door, it was wicked.

[cbiegel]

The picture of the tower getting hit is CRAZY!

[Fhernando]

Great photos!!! I think that was the most powerful Thunder Storm ever!!!! My girlfriend and I where glued to the balcony taking in all those awesome lightning hits!!!!!

[Whopper]

Awesome shots and video

We had one last week, early morning (5am) and it went on for about an hour. Some of the strikes went for about ten seconds. I got drenched getting to my truck and it was only parked ten foot from my front door

[ben306]

Thanks everyone!

Thinking I might have to get one printed up

[Clive]

Unreal bro! Haven't seen a storm like that in Toronto for a long time!

[jwm]

I was in York on Sunday at a birthday party and the sky was literally red and green it was an awesome storm. Cant ever remember the last time I saw a lightning storm that crazy.

Awesome photos! Did you just take a ton and pull out the good ones or do you have some kind of flash/sound detector to catch the lightning?

[ben306]

Thanks everyone.

I took about 100 photos, of which about 12-15 were good.

Just kept shooting on exposures of 2-5 seconds, did try a few longer exposures upwards of 8 seconds but the problem with the lightning is that it would flare out and over expose the photo. Needed a ND filter really to get the best shots

[Clive]

You try any photoshop filters on the over exposed images? Often you can correct that with a few minor adjustments - perhaps shadows and highlights?

[MillerPhoto]

With your Panasonic FZ18 that you shot the still iamges with, you should be able to control the Aperture also.

If you up it to like F8 or F16 you can slow your shutter down more, so you capture more strikes, with out over exposing the photo.

[pierre]

awesome pictures