Are Storm Chasers Chasing the Storm or is The Storm Chasing Them?
Long time ago, before i even had my first DSLR camera i tried to photography lightning when ever i could. But i lived in a city on the last flor of a building with access to a rooftop. Lightning photos usually look good at night with stuff around illuminated with artificial light. If you catch a lightning hitting a tall building with cityscape around it, it will most probably look cool. If you catch a lightning hitting the empty flat field, most of the times it will be well a lightning hitting an empty field.
I also often see those cool photos of weird cloud formations, where you know nothing good will come from those clouds, but they look spectacular, often like an alien invasion.
I do have some photos of interesting clouds, but non of those spectacular storming ones.
So we come to today. The whole day there were reports of a storm coming. As it was close to sunset i thought it will be a good time for catching some lightning too. So i checked out the live lightning app to see what is the situation. It looked like it is still some time away.
I had an idea of where i would like to go to set up the shot. But as i was driving i saw i was a bit to late. The imagined spot was canceled and i stopped on the first crossroad that gave me the view of the clouds. It was not that alone spectacular cloud as there were already clouds in front of it. But it still looked interesting.
Didn't have a lot of time to set up, there were some nice sunflowers some 300m up the road, the bright yellow would probably look good with these dark clouds. Well maybe next time.
What i also learned there is a bit of a play with getting the shutter speed right to get those clouds and lightning. Sky was moving fast so slower shutter speed was making the clouds a bit blurry, and faster shutter speed makes it hard to time it right to get those lightnings. 10 sec exposures looked pretty good, 20 was a bit to much.
Now why the question from the title? I always assumed that for these photo you are trying to be in front of the storm, but these things move fast. I did not expect that. You can't really see it from these 2 photos but the difference is one exposure, so around 25 seconds. And one frame you see everything fine till the first wind mill and in the next one you can see the rain and the wind is on to you already.
So the storm chasers are probably running away from the storms, not chasing them?
In the end, the wind was pretty strong, with a good amount of rain. Luckily no hailstorm (few days ago it was pretty crazy some 60km from my place). Seen some bigger branches on the road, hope there were no damage done in the town.
I liked how you captured the images of the storm, and how you conveyed the adrenaline and risk of this activity. I was very curious to learn more about the phenomenon of storm chasers, and the reasons that motivate them to do it.
What sensations or emotions do you experience when you are in front of a storm? Thank you for sharing your passion and talent. Best regards.
for those crazy storms, thornado or huracan it is probably an adrenaline rush of the force and unstoppable nature.
i didn't really expect the wind to be that strong, i went on a shoot of an interesting cloud 😂
today was actually worse, but it started at night. my friend lost the roof from his workshop and my part is out of electricity as 2 big trees collapsed and severed the power lines
Wow, what an unforgettable experience
These are so cool. I have always wanted to do storm photography. It would be such an adrenaline rush.
thanks. we don't have tornadoes, that is probably super crazy. went out today again but the storm came after the sunset. wind was worse. i am on my phone in the dark, we will probably get electricity tomorrow 😄
Those look awesome! No to the question: how the heck do you do that? Is it the long expo and pray that a bolt strikes during that time?
that is how lighting photography usually works. you see from where the storm is coming, point it to that direction and set the shooter speed as long as you can. That is why it is easier to do it at night. And when the storm is serious, most of the time you do get the lightning in every 5-6 shots.
And not letting the lightning to reach on top of you while you are standing there with your metal tripod feels pretty important :D
The most frustrating is when you are between the shots and you see the spectacular one hitting it :)
Well that's one important note 🤣
I guess i'm not trying that anytime soon
😄
But that's what usually happens to me, lol :)
😄
Well, you might not have gotten quite to the location you wanted, but I do see two positives:
A good day!
the second one feels pretty important :) i did get into the car when the rain started, so the second part of the shoot was through a open window. not sure in % how important the open window is in car lightning protection :)
Mother Nature conjuring up some fine dramatic artworks. You captured them impressively :)
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 25/65) Liquid rewards.
it does look impressive and dramatic. lucky no real damage here, in Belgrade few of the cranes fell.
Bilo je ludo 😳 Mogu misliti kako je u ravnici gde se vidi ceo svod. Sjajne fotke! 🙂
bilo je zanimljivo, kad sam kliknuo zadnju fotku tih 20 sekundi je trajalo dosta dugo, iako sam vec bio u autu :)
Najavljuju nam danas ponovo, sad dal samo pune vesti sa necim na sta ce da se klikne ili ne, videcemo.
Nemam pojma, ova nova kovanica "superceliska" najavljuje neku naucnu fantastiku 😀 Dobre fotke ti zelim! Pozdrav! 🙂
superceliske je postalo smesno. koji god portal da otvoris svugde super celije 😄
hose are some amazing photos! You definitely captured the power of the storm.
I think you're right that storm chasers are probably running away from the storms, not chasing them. Storms can move very quickly, and it's important for storm chasers to stay safe. They need to be able to outrun the storm and find a safe place to observe it from a distance.
these last few days it was really fast, didn't expect that. using longer lenses and staying back is probably a smart idea :)
Looking at the photos, it seems that nature is getting ready for a very big mission.
it did not fake out, but lucky it was not bad as it could be.
These photos are awesome!! Hope you didn't get fully soaked. ;)
Thanks. it started raining in the middle of the shoot but the main clouds were still a bit away, so i moved into the car and set the tripod on the passenger seat. Good rain protection.
These are some epic shots!
thanks :)
The storms are. The chasers chase. So it has been since the Dawn of Time.
storms are, but are often also very fast, so it feels like storm chasers are actually trying to run away from them :)
Aye, you can't disrespect the storm. There was this case where an experienced local astronomer and astro photographer almost lost his sight while shooting at lightning bolts. Fortunately, at that time the photographic community was quite united via a certain local forum and was able to quickly raise the funds for a timely surgery. Years later, I visited a lecture and a presentation by the same person. He was still chasing storms.
it can be pretty dangerous and unpredictable. but from the case shared, pretty addicting. if he was close enough to have damage to his sight, he was probably lucky to be alive.
WHAT A SKY!!! THE STORM IS CHASING THEMMMMM!!!!! HOW BEAUTIFUL 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Thanks
To tell you the truth, these pictures are so amazing that one's eyes are kept in one place and there is a lot of happiness. Such beautiful views are rarely seen by humans. The clouds are very superb.
nature is often fascinating, but it knows to be dangerous too.
Yeah you are right.
That's some nice captures! Great work!!
Thanks :)
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