Lightning!

After dinner at the lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we went outside to catch the views under the light of a full moon. We could see storms off in the distance, and with tripod and camera in hand, I was ready to shoot. This was my first time shooting lightning...

Copyright (C) 2010 Mary Weiland

I left the shutter open for 25 seconds, took repeated pictures, and crossed my fingers. The moonlight was coming from the upper left portion of the frame, and cast a lot of light. I didn't try to shoot longer than 25 seconds - I think excitement, nerves, etc. took over and I didn't leave room for experimentation. If I left the shutter open to 30 seconds, the blues in the sky may have been more vibrant...but I also had to compensate for the full moon light.

Copyright (C) 2010 Mary Weiland

I did not have my zoom lens with me (80 - 200 mm f/2.8) because I did not want to carry the weight of an extra lens on the hike from North to South Rim, so these shots were taken with an 18 - 70 mm lens at 60 - 70mm lengths. Maybe they would have been stronger shots with a longer zoom, but I am happy with the turnout. I like the fact that you can see the cloud cover and the rain coming down.

Next time I have the opportunity to shoot lightning, I will experiment more with timing/shutter speed, and focal length. I did learn, though, that it is all luck. As soon as the shutter closed, sure enough, the best lightning strikes occurred.

Back from the Grand Canyon

I got back from an unbelievable trip to the Grand Canyon on Sunday. Went with a remarkable group of people, hiked North rim to South rim, with a bunch of additional day hikes sprinkled throughout my 5 days there. Took lots of pictures - in both color and infrared, but they can't touch the beauty and size of the Canyon. Had a photo buddy on the trip, which made it so fun to shoot, talk "shop", share ideas, and push each other to try new things.

Copyright (C) 2010 Mary Weiland

One new thing I tried was to create panoramic shots by taking several overlapping pictures with the intention of merging them using photo editing software. Not sure why I never tried this before - always wanted to, but had that extra push on this trip to experiment. Keep in mind the following shots were purely experimental and not my best work - just attempting something new.

Copyright (C) 2010 Mary Weiland

I used a tripod in all of my attempts so as to keep the camera at the same level while shooting. I also used the same camera settings (shutter speed, f/stop, etc.) so as to not change the exposure between shots. I overlapped images about 25% to ensure the software would be able to recognize similarities/prominent features and merge the photos at those points.

Copyright (C) 2010 Mary Weiland

I need to learn my photo software better to sew the pictures together...either that, or readjust how to shoot the individual frames. I had trouble aligning the pictures just right and had to use the perspective feature to merge the pictures. I also noticed that I lost some edges of the outer pictures after the merge, and am not quite sure why (e.g., in the river picture, I had more information on the leftmost frame but it was cut off). I had a lot of fun experimenting, but clearly I have a lot to learn! More Grand Canyon pics to come, including experimentation with lightning shots and the night-time sky.