Capturing Lightning in Bangkok

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by: KaisHavard492
Total views: 4
Word Count: 545
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 Time: 1:43 AM

produced by: Keith Taylor

Need to show you, I'm owning the time if living currently.

Beyond the windows of my little studio apartment in downtown Bangkok, our home base for another month or two, hawaiian isle storm is raging. The streets are flooding with water, bolts of lightning shoot in the sky every couple of seconds and peals of thunder crackle through the air almost constantly.

Storms aren't anything new - I've spent the majority of the a year ago in Thailand, also times of the season they're a daily occurrence - but what really excites me tends to be that Not long learned how to take photos of your lightning.

I'd always assumed that hot weather required lots of special equipment if you want to catch the actual moment of your lightning bolt. I knew that human reflexes aren't near sharp enough to find a bolt manually, or perhaps when they were your camera isn't fast enough to adopt an endeavor over time. Whatever learned, though, is this : lightning photography can be carried out having a 'fire-and-forget' simplicity. All you need to do is ensure that the camera is stable, set the shutter speed to bulb exposure and wait for lightning to take a look in frame.

Naturally, this efficient after dark when there are not many options for light to overexpose the shot, but tonite I've taken some pretty amazing photos in the Bangkok skyline being attacked with the wrath within the sky.

You will find 2 problems faced by your lightning photographer. Is that long exposures heat up the sensor something awful, hence the longer the exposure the grainier the shot. Ideally you need an exposure cease to than only a very few seconds.

The larger problem, though, is due to my Canon T2i battery. The T2i can perform around 400 shots in a full battery, however when you're shooting long exposures that figure plummets. When shooting long exposures you possibly can burn via the battery within one hour, and whenever you've ever tried lightning photography you'll know you won't ever would like to stop so that the last bolt.

The straightforward solution, not surprisingly, is to plan your energy usage prior to. Make the most of a battery pack grip when I'm shooting lightning, allowing me to load a surplus Canon T2i battery near the first. This bumps up my shooting period to a few hours, but it is still not quite enough.

To offer myself the amount of time Thought about need, the most effective solution is to cycle through three batteries. And i'm shooting along with the camera grip attached I'll experience an extra battery charging indoors. After i get battery power warning I'll yell inside for my family to take your fully charged Canon T2i battery. When that fails, I'll rush in grab it myself (avoiding my wife's yelling) and replace the batteries into the charger.

It's not perfect, and the best option would be to install an outside power source, however, when injuries buy significantly more equipment this technique allows you to focus on time ahead of power drain finally catches for you to decide!