NE - Omaha - LTNG

1/40" F/4 ISO-320

1/25" F/4 ISO-400

1/13" F/2.8 ISO-80

1/13" F/2.8 ISO-80

1/13" F/2.8 ISO-80

I decided to try my hand at some daylight photography tonight. It didn't go so well. Especially using a point and shoot camera (damnit I miss my DSLR) I didn't have any control over the f-stop. I could control the shutter speed slightly (varying between 1/30, 1/25, 1/15 and 1/5") and the ISO, but without the f-stop I was doomed from the get go.

I did manage to get 5 shots (click to enlarge if you can't see them in the thumbnails) of lightning, so it wasn't a total loss. These were all taken on the southwest entrance at Lake Cunningham. It's been a couple of years since I've been here, nice to see that they've filled the lake up with water, again.

NE - Omaha - LTNG

1" f/2.8 ISO-80

1" f/2.8 ISO-80

Tonight was pretty active but I was only able to get two shots of lightning. There was a lot going on to the southeast of Omaha so I headed that way, but by the time I got into position just southeast of Glenwood, IA, everything had stopped. The sun was due to come up within an hour so it wasn't worth driving west towards new storms rolling in near Lincoln.

These photos were shot in the American National Bank parking lot at 90th & Dodge while aimed just above the Walgreen's there. There were some nice crawlers that went directly overhead of me before I was able to park. It was quite breathtaking.

NE - Chalco - LTNG

 

 

Wow, what a night! I don't get to go shooting often since I'd been driving a convertible for the past three years, but now I own a hard top and I can go out again without the fear of being electrocuted! I got off some 397 photos and ended up with 21 great shots (even outside of those 21 were some pretty nice ones, but I had to cull somewhere).

A few of these I plan on getting prints of and maybe one or two some larger canvas prints.

Not too shabby for a Canon SD1200IS now, is it?

IA - Red Oak - TOR Bust

Yeah, it was a bust, but very scenic. This is the first chase I have been on since, what, 2004? Wow, can't believe it's been that long since I saw that tornado in Waverly. I was listening to this AM station in Shenendoah (950 or something) and people kept calling in from Emerson saying that they saw the tornado, I say they were all b.s.ers. I never saw the damn thing. (Go figure, me, not see a tornado, no!) It wasn't until I got home and saw on Channel 6 WOWT people who had NICE video of the touchdown. I saw, what I believe was a meso, definitely not a tornado. Possibly funnels, but can't be too sure. This was the best shot of the, what I consider weak, wall cloud. But this storm started in Cass Co., NE and moved into Mills Co., IA in a 3 hour period. It was strollin' along at a whopping 10 mph. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived in Glenwood, a 45 minute drive during rush hour traffic, and the storm was STILL THERE. No tornado, but it was still a very photogenic storm!!

NE - Omaha - SVR

This is from the North Omaha Airport at 12001 N 72 St. This storm later produced a Tornado Warning for Guthrie County in Iowa.