Lightning Video

[beechsundowner]

My second attempt at putting together a video of lightning I took at my house. Mother nature was much more cooperative as I had a cell approximately 5 miles to my west "strutting 'er stuff" with at minimum 1 CC every 2 seconds and a CG once a minute that I could see. There seemed to be a constant roll of thunder during the storm. Total time of video for the 2 1/2 minutes spanned 40 minutes of actual time.

YouTube - Lightning in a thunderstorm - Eye of...

First 2 1/2 minutes were consolidated videos. I again left some time between lightning strikes to make the transitions feel more natural in the video portion.

Last 2 1/2 minutes were frame captures of the lightning strikes both CG and CC for a total of 41 strokes of lightning and 9 very pretty flashes where you don't see the actual lightening. I was amazed while analyzing frame by frame how many I missed seeing in the videos themselves.

Also interesting was where there was a clear definition of the lightning strike,, going frame by frame, invariably, there would be several dark frames between I guess the original strike and the return strike? Not sure why this would be, but it was very, very consistent that I would see a couple of frames clearly black or lacking lightning

My video strategy was to make the actual videos short in time duration so I didn't have to watch endlessly to find lightning strikes, I videoed until I what I felt was a successful catch, terminated that video and started a new video. By the time I was done, I had about 35 videos to go through and glean out what I wanted or needed.

Comments or tips while videoing most appreciated here or on the video on helping improve the video. Camera being used is a Kodak Easy Share. Windows Movie Maker is my video editor of choice in all my videos.

Allen

[beechsundowner]

For those that are interested in looking at the still pictures I extracted for the lightning video I recently created (includes my first lightening video pics), they can be found at Picasa Web Albums - A - Lightning Pic...

Allen

[herasday]

Sorry, Beech, meant to post to this before to tell you I enjoyed it. I like the way you used the lone tree as a focus. There was one frame in particular during the vid that I can't find again now that I want to go back and tell you which one. LOL. It was during a lightening strike, but there also must have been a lightening strike on the camera side of the tree, because it was both back and front lit...it made the tree look like a "negative" for a split second, being back lit AND illuminated starkly on the front or camera side at the same time. When I went back through and watched it again, to get the approximate time it happened, I couldn't find it. LOL. I was going to suggest you see if you could find it and include it in the stills. But I suppose that the appearance MAY have been caused by the sequential appearance of more than one frame in a short time. Photography tricks the eye that way, sometimes, I know. But it was a neat video with lots of good lightening shots.

Wish you could have been here last night with your camera. We had a lot of photo ops if you wanted lightening and clouds. We had HOURS of very violent lightening, storm after storm, cell after cell, warning after warning, all evening and most of the night. My dog wants to move to Arizona, now, or someplace they don't get thunder and lightening too often. She spent most of the night trying to crawl under the washing machine to hide.

[beechsundowner]

Originally Posted by herasday

. It was during a lightening strike, but there also must have been a lightening strike on the camera side of the tree, because it was both back and front lit...it made the tree look like a "negative" for a split second, being back lit AND illuminated starkly on the front or camera side at the same time. When I went back through and watched it again, to get the approximate time it happened, I couldn't find it. LOL.

Thanks for the compliments Herasday

I couldn't find it either :-)

Originally Posted by herasday

My dog wants to move to Arizona, now, or someplace they don't get thunder and lightening too often. She spent most of the night trying to crawl under the washing machine to hide.

If we are really smart, we probably should cozy up to your dog, sometimes they have more sense then we do

Big ole MCS missed me today. Just the outflow winds to **cool** us from 101 down to 87 this evening. Pretty bad when 87 feels cool!