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When lightning strikes: how to make great images out of any situation

When lightning strikes: how to make the most out of any situation

May 2, 2023 by Derrick Rose Add Comment
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I’ve heard that a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at the office. That’s how I feel about chasing the Milky Way. It’s not only about capturing a beautiful image but is a way to unplug from the hyperconnected world. Before that happens, you typically have to walk up or down a dark trail on a moonless night while trying to talk some sense into the imaginary voice in your head that’s telling you every stray sound is a starving bear or mountain lion with a taste for human flesh.

One’s imagination tends to go into overdrive in total darkness. But when the voice calms down, as it eventually does once your eyes adjust to the dark, you can relax, connect with nature, and revel in awe at the mysterious, starry band of lights called the Milky Way. On this occasion, I didn’t manage to capture the Milky Way as planned. This is how a surprise storm actually made the shot even better than I’d imagined. Sometimes lightning strikes, and you just have to go with it.

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Photographer captures Rio’s Christ the Redeemer as it gets struck by lightning

Feb 17, 2023 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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Sometimes you have an image in your mind, but the chance to take it is one in a million. In times like this, you need to prepare, hope, and shoot, shoot, shoot until you get it.

Brazilian photographer Fernando Braga did this for an entire year and finally got the image of his dreams. He captured the moment when a lightning struck Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, and his amazing image took the world by storm (pun not intended). We chatted a bit with Fernando about his photos, and he shared some details behind this incredible shot with us.

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Mountain guide captures volcanic “dirty thunderstorm” on video

Mountain guide captures volcanic "dirty thunderstorm" on video

Jan 30, 2023 by Alex Baker Add Comment
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A mountain guide has shared an astounding video of a rare phenomenon only seen during a volcanic eruption. Volcanic lightning is seldom seen, and even more rarely is it captured on video.

The guide Chino Adventuras captured the rare footage while showing tourists the the summit of Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala.

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Why do some people travel thousands of miles to photograph storms?

Dec 1, 2022 by Alex Baker 1 Comment
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How far would you travel to capture the perfect lightning bolt? For some photographers, that answer is “pretty far”. This excellent short documentary released by ABC Australia shows the lengths some storm-chasing photographers are prepared to go to. And it’s fascinating.

Jordan Cantelo is one such storm chaser who travels thousands of miles across the Australian continent. His main directive is to capture that elusive lightning bolt.

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Nikon Z 9’s Pre-release feature makes lightning triggers obsolete

Aug 23, 2022 by Reed Hoffman 21 Comments
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If you’ve ever tried to photograph lightning during daytime, you know it’s almost impossible. By the time you press the shutter button, it’s gone. That’s why lightning triggers, while no guarantee of success, exist. But the addition of the new “Pre-release” feature in Nikon’s Z 9 cameras now make those triggers obsolete. It guarantees success, as I found out last week.

Over the last half-dozen years I’ve been running small-group photography trips to places around the U.S. Sedona, with many great locations nearby, moderate summer weather (at least by Kansas City standards!) and a good chance for storms has been high on my list of “need to do a workshop there.” Last week I finally did, and it was as good as I’d hoped (I’ll write a blog past about that in the next few weeks). But it was the thunderstorm we watched Thursday evening that resulted in a new “Aha!” moment for me.

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Photographer combines luck and skill in this incredible double rainbow and lightning shot

Jul 18, 2022 by Dunja Djudjic 1 Comment
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Most of you knows photographer Jason Rinehart for his light painting work. While he’s passionate about creating art with lights and long exposure, he is equally crazy about capturing nature’s natural light work: thunderstorms.

While scrolling through Facebook recently, I stumbled upon a perfect example of Jason’s passion I didn’t know so much about. He captured a lightning strike under a rainbow, which is not something you see every day. Add another rainbow into the equation and you get a once-in-a-lifetime shot. I wanted to learn more about this incredible photo, and Jason kindly shared some details with DIYP.

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Caught on camera: Lightning strike hits storm-chasing photographer’s car and disables it

May 13, 2022 by John Aldred 3 Comments
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With the advancements in tech, the proliferation of relatively inexpensive camera equipment and the ever pervasive advancement of social media and YouTube over the last decade or so, storm-chasing has become a big thing. Once a task only pursued by scientists and the absolutely insane, it’s now become pretty normal. For a storm chaster who goes by the name Pi (and More Pi on YouTube), though, this trip was anything but normal.

While looking for tornadoes in Iowa, his car (which he was inside) was struck by lightning and completely disabled. It also fried one of his in-car cameras. Fortunately for us, he had his own cameras recording and the whole event was also captured on camera from the vantage point of his friend, High Risk Chris, in a separate car.

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Siblings taking a selfie capture the exact moment they were struck by lightning

Jul 19, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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The odds of being struck by lightning are roughly 1 in 500,000. But what are the odds of taking a selfie at the exact moment that happens? When a UK woman whipped out her phone to take a photo of herself and her two siblings, the trio got struck by lightning the moment she pressed the shutter. Thankfully, they all survived and ended up with a selfie you definitely don’t see every day.

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This breathtaking photo shows rare St. Elmo’s fire from an airplane cockpit

Oct 4, 2019 by Dunja Djudjic 6 Comments
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I am quite fascinated by both thunderstorms and photos from an airplane. But what about taking a photo of a rare weather phenomenon straight from the cockpit? This is exactly what Swiss pilot and photographer Sales Wick did while en route to Brazil. He captured pretty rare St. Elmo’s fire and it looks like the airplane is engulfed in it. The photo is impressive and scary at the same time, and I just had to contact Sales and find out more about it! He kindly shared the photo with DIYP, as well as some details on how it was taken.

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This spectacular storm timelapse took 15,000 miles of travel and over 85,000 photos to create

Nov 8, 2018 by Dunja Djudjic 1 Comment
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Photographer Mike Olbinski has become a synonym for breathtaking timelapse movies of different kinds of storms. The latest installment of his Monsoon series has just been published and it took an incredible amount of effort, money, and photos to put it together. Mike spent three months chasing storms for this movie – and he compressed the best shots in only eight minutes of pure nature’s spectacle.

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Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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