June 12 Storm Chase & Lightning

Jayson Prentice · Jun 15, 2008

June 12 had the storms throughout the plains states, and even into the great lakes region. I ended up in Kansas, between Emporia and Wichita throughout the afternoon/evening and into the early nighttime hours. Several images came from the days chase, several including daytime lightning captures which is the first ever for me! The lightning was definitely intense, and gave us a scare once as it struck ~100 yards behind us while parked. Needless to say we moved a little further right after that occurred...

You can view the entire day's album here: June 12 Gallery

Enjoy!

Jayson Prentice · Jun 17, 2008

I know that we've had quite a few great nighttime lightning threads, but not a single comment on my series here?

Thanks

Ripskip · Jun 17, 2008

I got stuck in these storms as they pushed through eastern Missouri on my way to my parent's house. Great photos! I was in the car and getting pummeled by hail, so there was no photo ops for me.

I really like the image 2nd from the bottom, it really shows that front pushing through. Good work!

BoblyBill · Jun 17, 2008

Jayson, I'm sorry but I haven't been frequenting this gallery much until lately and I must have missed these. these are great! From the look of this storm though, it looks like it just teased you a little am I right? By the way... if you are ever in the Arlington area and need a place to stay for the night you are welcome at my place.

osirus · Jun 17, 2008

Those are some sweet clouds

great pics

Craig-Nature at Its best · Jun 17, 2008

Nice one Jayson!

BoblyBill · Jun 17, 2008

Oh and are you using a lightning trigger on that lightning by chance?

Jayson Prentice · Jun 18, 2008

Chris, you are right in that it just teased, that is, up until the point where we gave up on it (produced a tornado 15 minutes after). As for the lightning, those are all daytime lightning with quick hands on the shutter, no lightning trigger for me.

BoblyBill · Jun 18, 2008

Jayson Prentice said:
Chris, you are right in that it just teased, that is, up until the point where we gave up on it (produced a tornado 15 minutes after). As for the lightning, those are all daytime lightning with quick hands on the shutter, no lightning trigger for me.

I can't tell you how many times I've given up on a storm and later found out that it produced... Grrr... Kudos to you for getting lighting in the day time without a trigger. Continuous bursts? or getting the second flash? or neither?

Jayson Prentice · Jun 18, 2008

Most of the lightning as you can tell are slightly faded from what they would be if you captured the whole flash. I was typically just quick enough to catch the last portion of the return stroke for most of them... Lightning at night is soo much easier.

But, that was my first attempt and first successes with daytime lightning, can't be too disappointed with what came out of it.

cjkriebel · Jun 18, 2008

mother nature is awesome. Great photos hope to catch lighting myself sometime.

Foques · Jun 18, 2008

can you share what equipment you've used and how did you capture the lighting? I've always been curious how its done.

Jayson Prentice · Jun 19, 2008

I'm using a Canon XTi with the Sigma 17-70 lens, f/7.1 @ ISO 100... That led to shutter speeds around 1/40 second.

As far as capturing the lightning, like I told Chris, I essentially was setup with camera ready and my finger on the shutter awaiting for the lightning. Saw the strike and pressed the shutter, sometimes I was quick enough as you can see above, other times all I got was an image of the storm (not bad either).