Thunderstorms

[brainpause]

I thought I was one of few who like watching thunderstorms. Maybe it is a camper thing.

Anyway, I grew up learning to love thunderstorms. You see, it meant work, food, and money for my parents. Dad was the local "TV man", meaning he fixed televisions (not Tow Vehicles ). So, when it stormed, that meant (unfortunately for some people) that we would have work to do, and a means to pay our bills.

So, sort of like Pavlov's dog, I "salivated" with lightning. And I still enjoy watching the "show!"

Larry

[Camperroo]

Our family loves thunderstorms!!  Love it when the rain comes pouring down in buckets and then you hear the rumble of thunder and then count the seconds till the lightening streaks across the sky!!!

[MommaMia]

Momma, you have a wonderfully poetic way of looking at them.  Reckless abandon, huh? Reminds me of one of the DWs romance books.

 

Hey Thanks!  It's been brought to my attention in the past few days/weeks/months that I haven't exhibited much of my artistic side lately.

Besides... I love thunder and lightning so much that I get caught up with bubbling excitement when I think or talk about it.  When I wrote what I did, the storm was going on just beyond the window  to the left of my computer chair.  I was merely writing what I was experiencing at that very moment!  I let the first words that came to my head fly from my fingers and onto the screen to share with all of you.  The method seemed to work pretty well.   I think I'd like to try to employ the technique with some of my other writings.  It seems to me that there is a tern for the technique, but I can't for the life of me think of what it is....

Oh well..... My pillow beckons me and I have one more post yet to make!

[MommaMia]

I enjoy thunderstorms so much I like to shoot video with my cam corder and then later capture stills from it and post them on my Web site.  I've been doing that for 2 years now.

http://home.twcny.rr.com/rajones315/

Oh they are gorgeous!!!   You are so clever to use the cam corder!  I have tried so hard to catch the image of that pure energy streaking it's way to earth, but it's impossible with a digital camera and nearly as hard with a 35mm!

I'm going to try to catch some electric excitement of my own!  Thanks!

[rajones315]

Oh they are gorgeous!!!   You are so clever to use the cam corder!  I have tried so hard to catch the image of that pure energy streaking it's way to earth, but it's impossible with a digital camera and nearly as hard with a 35mm!

I'm going to try to catch some electric excitement of my own!  Thanks!

Thanks Momma. The main thing is to do it safely.  I shoot all my video from within my van.  

Also, be prepared for a lot of dead time on the video tape.  I usually just set it up on a tri-pod and let it start recording.  As the storm moves through, you'll be slowly moving it, but I've found it's better to let the camera do all the work.

Also, don't be fooled by lightening.  Just because your eye can't catch a bolt, the video camera might.  What I mean is a lot of times we just see the flash, but a video camera can catch much more.

Here are a couple more tips.  Only shoot at night, and turn your exposure down.  The exposure control determines how much light the lense will take in.  If your camera has an automatic light sensing control, disable it and adjust the control a few notches down yourself.  If you don't your pictures will most likely be grainy.

Also, if your camera has an autofocusing adjustment, use it to focus on something in the area like a tree, and then turn the autofocus off.

I've actually been fortunate to catch streamers.  Streamers are ground discharges that reach toward the sky.  Lightning uses streamers to touch the ground.  It's also those streamers that give you the feeling that your hair is standing on end just before lightening strikes.