The 2009 Arizona Monsoon Storms…so far

[caradoc]

It’s been an exciting season so far, and the bulk of it still lies ahead.

…and since I finished assembling a lightning trigger I’ll be doing more shooting of lightning in daylight.

As usual, click on any image to get the Flickr page, full-res versions available. Or you can watch the slideshow for my 2009 shots.

[caradoc]

More fun with the lightning trigger.

[soosh]

those are awesome.

have you tried playing with your aperture to see what kind of effect that might have on your lightning shots? for shooting star trails and night skies, if I drop the aperture down to f/8 or so, I can effectively erase half of the stars in the sky — they just don’t show up, no matter how long the exposure is. opening up to f/2.8 or f/1.8, and the sky suddenly is filled with more stars than are imaginable. for instance:

this is f/5:

this is f/8

this is f/11

compare that to wide open:

f/1.8

I wonder if you’d get any similar effect with lightning.

[caradoc]

You do. f/8 is pretty average for most of my shooting. At f/16 you lose a lot of the “leaders” and tendrils.

I’ve occasionally had to open to f/2.8 when the storms is very distant.

[caradoc]

A few more from this season:

[soosh]

love that second one. love all of them.

[caradoc]

love that second one. love all of them.

Thanks, soosh. Coming from someone whose work I’ve admired for a while, that means a lot.

[caradoc]

Sunday evening, just before sunset.

[caradoc]

[soosh]

that last one is great.

I’m a sucker for photos with words in them, for some reason.

[caradoc]

Thanks, soosh!

[nobigdeal]

I agree with soosh, that last shot is amazing!

[caradoc]

A couple more:

[orionid]

I know I’ve expressed before how awesome these are, but seriously, you need to stop posting these amazing shots because they make me cry in my beer over the fact that I’ve been living on the wrong side of the mountains for almost 15 years now and haven’t had a good thunderstorm to speak of.

/I jest. Keep up the good work.
//I seriously am jealous. I heart thunderstorms.

[Kestrana]

I miss thunderstorms so much but lightning in the mountains is one of the most amazing sights ever.

[Author]

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