Lightning In Saugatuck
I just got home from a great anniversary weekend with my lovely wife. This is not what the post is about though.. maybe a different one. This post is about the KICK ASS storm that blew over the last night we were in Saugatuck Michigan; If you don't know about Saugatuck I implore you to look into it and visit at least once! fyi We go every year :)
The Setup
I shoot with the Olympus Em1 with the M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm f2.8 PRO and use "Live composite" mode. I mess around with the settings depending on the storm and how "frothy" I want the clouds. Sometimes I want the detail. Also a tripod is a must, one for the camera to stay still and two so I can remain dry! Keep in mind with Olympus Omd's this whole lightning thing is super easy and fun. They're weather sealed too! For the Dslr people you'll need some sort of Lightning trigger, which I have no experience in so unfortunately I don't have a suggestion. (buy an Olympus! wink wink nudge nudge http://www.getolympus.com/)
The Photos
I like doing photo processing and all on my images but with these I tend to have the best luck getting things right in camera vs "adjusting" them. So Really on most of these only minor adjustments were made and a little cloning when something was in the image I personally found distracting. I feel I've babbled enough now so here are the images!
Above: By far one of my favorites of the lot! I Call it "Chaos In The Skies" Below: Also a great one! "Three Strikes"
"The Sky Is Opening" This one just was amazing to see!!!! Literally the lightning crawled out of the clouds and spread out! Truly a sight!
"Above: "Gods Eye" was my play on the fact the way the clouds and lightning spread across making a brow and eye... Do you see it? Below: Last but not least one of the largest bolts I was able to capture named "Boom".... mainly because there was a big ass boom and it lit the sky like dusk!
All in all I ended up with around 25 usable photos with lightning in them but these were some of my favorites and well... the ones I have currently processed! :) These and more in the future will be available for print here: http://www.sethingtonscreations.com/longexposure
Again as always Thank you for visiting my blog and website! Take a minute to look around things are always changing here!
~Sethington
