Take a picture once a day, whether you need to or not

[kubodhi]

I wonder if anyone has any general advice for shooting thunderstorms?  I tend to favor low ISO, mid-aperture longer-exposure but I wonder if I might be approaching that wrong.

[K9]

Not being snarky, but getting to a spot where there are no trees in the way would probably be the first key step.

Technically I don't know, the first one looks pretty good for a lightning shot from what I can see. I guess a large part of shooting lightning will be patience and luck, as you wait for the big strike to come. I'm sure apocrypha can weigh in with some good comments on the technical side of things though, so I'll defer to him for that.

[Sir T]

Clouds

Sunset {edit} link fixed

Walking though Raheen Industrial estate, and passed the Dell plant, which used to be the biggest employer in Limerick. This is it today.

[kubodhi]

Not being snarky, but getting to a spot where there are no trees in the way would probably be the first key step.

Definitely not bad advice.  I don't own a rain hood for my camera so most of my thunderstorm shooting comes from my garage or other buildings I have access to, so maybe when I get some free time I'll make a quick rain-protection setup and try to get some more open-air shots.

[apocrypha]

I can do that.  Is capitalization more important than punctuation, then?  

Haha, well played  

Thunderstorms isn't something I've ever tried shooting myself. They're pretty rare here and tend to be very short-lived. If I still lived on the south coast I'd give it a go, some of the ones coming in from the sea used to look awesome.

Technically they look fine. Long exposures are the order of the day from what I've read - 30 seconds or so. Which means no need for high iso, just a good tripod and care when framing to keep big light sources out. Also a good rain cover for a camera on a tripod is just a big umbrella!

Edit: Oh and don't be afraid to really underexpose the clouds, storm clouds look great a few stops down.

[Mosesandstick]

Everything I've read says thunderstorms are just like fireworks. Low ISO, mid-low (high f-number) aperture and a long exposure, and wait. Good lightning will make the photo for you. I don't think you want clouds illuminated apart from the partial illumination + shadowing provided when it strikes.

[Viin]

Does anyone have a recommendation for photo sharing sites? I don't mind paying a modest fee to get ad-free, nice photo sharing - but access to printing would be nice too.

I really like this one: http://www.dphoto.com/
But until they add sub-galleries, it won't work for me. It's also 100% Flash, which I'm not super excited about but it does make it slick.

Currently using http://www.smugmug.com/ which has some nice printing options (not too $$ either), but the gallery layout options and controls are a bit clunky.

[apocrypha]

Is there anything in particular about Flickr that you don't like? I've always found it to be pretty much the best of the bunch.

[Viin]

I don't know, it just seems kinda lame. 

I didn't see any gallery customization when looking at some sample Flickr galleries, but maybe I'll just get an account and see what I can do.

[kubodhi]

Eh, the functionality, reliability, popularity and speed of Flickr have always attracted me to it.  It worries less about the flashy interface that a lot of sites but it gets the job done and lets you concentrate on what we're all there for -- the photos themselves.

My $0.02, anyway.

[Viin]

I'll mess with it a bit and see how it goes.

Btw, for those of you trying to do an actual 'picture a day' this might be a useful site:
http://365project.org/

[Samwise]

I'll mess with it a bit and see how it goes.

Btw, for those of you trying to do an actual 'picture a day' this might be a useful site:
http://365project.org/

Thanks for the link; I might actually give that a shot.

[Viin]

I also ran into Momentile while looking for photo hosting, it's another photo-a-day site.

[kubodhi]

IMG_4903 by kubodhi, on Flickr

[Samwise]

So I'm doing this 365 project thing.  I keep not taking a picture all day and having to take a picture of something random around the house, but I guess even that is good practice, right?

[K9]

I like both the last two pictures. I have a bunch of photos from the last few weeks, will see if any are up to snuff.

[kubodhi]

So I'm doing this 365 project thing.  I keep not taking a picture all day and having to take a picture of something random around the house, but I guess even that is good practice, right?

I'd like to see shots of the same bottles (they both look interesting) with a little bit of photographer intervention in the scene.  One idea would be to try moving the Leopold's bottle (nice and clear) more into the foreground so and see what kind of neat shots you can take through the bottle.  Otherwise, for a similar composition, you could simplify the background a bit so my eyes aren't drawn away from the bottles so much; possibly try a shallower depth of field to help with the same issue.  I think you could really snap attention to the bottles with a lighting change (a lamp or flashlight backlight, maybe?).

[kubodhi]

My little desk guardian at work:


IMG_4909 by kubodhi, on Flickr

[Samwise]

[kubodhi]

Love the depth of field, Samwise.

On my ride in to work this morning:

IMG_4946BW by kubodhi, on Flickr

[Samwise]

Spoilered for HUGE.  Panorama from Bernal Heights (which I'd never been up to before today).  On the left is downtown SF, and on the right is my neighborhood.  Pretty awesome.

[kubodhi]

Spoilered for HUGE.  Panorama from Bernal Heights (which I'd never been up to before today).  On the left is downtown SF, and on the right is my neighborhood.  Pretty awesome.

Epic capture.  Thanks for sharing!

[Samwise]

Postcard shot of Fort Point.  I tried to do a bay panorama from Crissy Field but couldn't quite convince Autostitch to put everything together.

[kubodhi]

Memorial Stadium, home of the Kansas Jayhawks.

IMG_4988 by kubodhi, on Flickr

[Musashi]

Spoilered for HUGE.  Panorama from Bernal Heights (which I'd never been up to before today).  On the left is downtown SF, and on the right is my neighborhood.  Pretty awesome.

The Stick!

[Samwise]

[kubodhi]

Saw some people sailing overhead when I was out with my camera last night:


IMG_5198 by kubodhi, on Flickr

[Musashi]

Can you climb with those things, or do you just gradually float to the ground?

[kubodhi]

I'm no expert, as I've never been on one myself, but I definitely saw them all climb multiple times.

[apocrypha]

You use rising thermals to climb, hitching a lift on spiral columns of warm air. This is why certain areas are good for hang-gliding, etc, because of the abundance of good thermals. AFAIK.

[Nerf]

Hawk vs. Squirrel on campus last Friday - went on for about 40 minutes until the hawk got bored and flew away.
All taken with my HTC incredible.











Hawks apparently don't like having their pictures taken - he got about 4 fucking inches from my face, I didn't even know I got this shot until I looked again right now.

[CaptainNapkin]

Cool stuff Nerf.

[Merusk]

Saw Muse tonight.  They definitley deserve the accolades for their live performances.  Best show I've ever seen, that's for sure.


Wish I had a lens that went lower than f4.5.  The distortion on High-1 is really visible.   

[Samwise]

[MrHat]

Mario before:




Then my lady snuck him out and had him professionally painted:



Such an awesome thing for her to do, but I don't have the heart to tell her...