We belong to the Thunder

Today at Six o'clock in the morning there were two tremendous lighting and thunder blasts. It practically bounced us out of bed. It was so loud it felt like it hit our house. What was more ominous was that the second blast had a sound that continue after the initial sound. It really sounded like the aftermath of a bomb explosion. I actually thought that it might have been a nuclear blast that I heard. 

It that fucked up or what?

The same sound was heard in NYC. From the New York Post:

"The reason for the figuratively “super charged” thunder was a temperature inversion sat over New York City. To those on the ground, the temperature was 51 degrees but up around 900 feet, the temperature had warmed to 54 degrees, instead of the usual cooling with height.

That inversion can trap sound waves near the surface, according to FOX Weather Meteorologist and Data Weather Specialist Shane Brown."

I guess we are all getting jumpy with the situation of having a senile dumpster fire as President and an ego maniac in Russia who is losing the plot.

Not the way you want to start the day.

Lightnin'

We are in the midst of a raucous thunder storm right this minute. The sun was out earlier and we got a preview of summer - burnin' hot out there, humid, air thick with anticipation. Some clouds blew in and the temperature dropped noticeably, then the rain started. Big ol' raindrops. Chased my dogs inside. Thunder could be heard off in the distance and it grew ever closer - finally you could see lightning streak across the sky and hear the thunder within a few seconds. The storm was marching right in on us.

But prior to the storm hitting, I was out in the backyard and I saw lightning bugs! Lightning bugs already! What the hey? It's still May! But by golly, I'll take 'em. They are a harbinger of summer and a happy one at that.

Musical options are numerous - Lightnin' Hopkins, Lightning - a work song, Howlin' Wolf and so on. Take your pick.

I didn't take this picture.

"N.B. man survives lightning strike while giving daughter's wedding speech"

Via Drudge:  Nadeau said he had his back turned toward the storm while giving his speech, and was unaware of the storm clouds approaching the wedding party.

He said his daughter stood nearby when she saw the lightning strike behind him, shooting a bolt of electricity through his body.

"I had the microphone and the shock jumped into the sound system and my hand just lit up and I saw the spark," he said.

"And I'm looking at my hand and it's all flared up … It was like I was holding a lightning bolt in my hand, it was amazing."

(Link to more of the stormy story)

2nd lightning strike.

There was a wonderful storm again tonight, not much moisture but a good deal of electric activity. I set up the tripod, camera and cell phone and became bummed out by the high number of really good strikes that the camera was missing.

I got online and looked at lightning sensors again. They all get mixed reviews on Amazon. It's discouraging. 

I read Arizona Highways that always has a lot of lightning photos each issue, online I looked for which sensor is best. Turns out the most expensive is recommended by photographers. The author wrote he went through several in the $100.00 range before finally buying a good one, so save money by not bothering with those less expensive. He recommended saving up and getting an expensive one, but he did not recommend a a specific model. The expensive ones do other things that I don't care about. 

He did make recommendations about camera settings but he offered so much information it became a wash of confusing numbers and ultimately not for me without studying them. He offered different settings for day and for night. I did learn to make sure the focus is not set to automatic. I knew that. I checked mine and saw in my haste that I had it on automatic. That is, focus the camera and lock it, then use whatever settings suits you. So I changed a few settings on my camera. The whole effort was discouraging.

Then I checked out B&O camera for sensors specific to my model Nikon. Discouraged again because the sensor recommended is among the cheap kind. I'm back to square one with nothing solid to go by. Disgusted with the project tonight I took down the setup thinking all those shutter activations are wasted that nothing can be done with them, shoved the memory card into the slot in the laptop and looked at the set of images in Adobe bridge expecting nothing. 

Oh joy. It caught something. 

Honestly, I don't know why it missed so many great strikes, and close ones too, except possibly not being locked on focus. But there you go. Sometimes the camera's own infrared sensor catches the lightning and most the time it does not. 

And see, this proves that everyday I can learn something new that's important to me. If only I understood what I learned. 

lightning strike

Score!

I spoke too soon and acted too soon. And now I must pay for my haste. But it wasn't haste. It was thoughtful and took a lot of time. Then it turned out to be haste. Today I decided that I need a lightning detector so I bought one. It will be here in a few days.

I did not realize the app on the telephone does the same thing.

Today two storms passed through. And it was lightning all over the place. The first one I thought would destroy a newly planted garden with serious hail. Very serious. That shows in the first video right off.  The storm marches right up and pow. Then the sky clears so brightly that the infrared phone signal does not register anymore and the camera shuts off.

Then it darkens again and the camera is started again.

The lightning detector that I bought today detects infrared light emitted immediately before the electric discharge of lightning. I didn't know that happens until I researched the detectors.

And the camera is set to accept an infrared signal for a remote shutter device. But the phone is signaling it every minute instead.

The phone keeps the camera going or else the camera would shut off after one minute to save power. The clouds triggered the camera between the timed phone trigger signals.

I noticed one frame of 285 frames is brighter than all the rest and no movement in the clouds. I was considering removing the frame so it doesn't mess up the time-lapse, then saw in the corner it is a lightning strike. Hard to see because it lit the sky. The strike occurs near the end of the second video when the sky turns from gray to gold to blue.

I didn't need to buy the triggering device. The phone and camera combo already does that.

And this is another of those costly 'live and learn' things recategorized as education expense, a large and encompassing category.

The detectors get poor reviews. And now I think I know why. The sky was electric and making lightening for hours but not showing like this one. It needed a good one before it worked. And maybe it's been getting lightning strikes all along but I only noticed it now.

It's a new thing!

Come on, look at that. We photographer types wee ourselves over a photo like this. 

Check out the hail storm that comes and smacks us and moves on and the tornado-like circular pattern happening right in front of us. It looks fast but it lasted a long time.

167 frames

The flash happens near the end. 

286 frames

"Lightning strikes two planes over Washington"

Via The Telegraph

Chile Volcano Eruption and a Bacon “Starry Night”

Volcano Eruption in Chile Photo by Francisco Nagroni

Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Made Out of Bacon

lightning destroys tree

Caught on cctv,