The Australian Weather Forum

Ok for anyone who doesn’t know me I am Thunder(aka Lee), I live in Townsville NQ. I generally chase within a 100-200km radius from home but will go much further if I have the time and the weather has the promise. I have been chasing on and off for years but I wouldn’t really call what I used to do chasing(story for another time), I have been more serious and FAR more educated this storm season and have pulled off some pretty sweet chases and busted out more times than I would like to admit too! I got sick of only ever having stories when I would come home so I started learning about storm photography(after all a picture says a thousand words!), picked up a DSLR for the first time about 3 weeks ago after plenty of reading and asking…. So without too much more yapping here’s my first up efforts (none are fixed in PS yet because I have to learn it but I played with the tones- clickable thumbs, I am kind to those with poor bandwidth)…

12th Jan, this is my chase to the Gregory Development Road (http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-19.52 ... 0&t=m&z=11 ) and first real opportunity to point the Canon at a storm.

This is my first ever “Keeper”(actually the very first bolt I caught with the DSLR-ever!) that is now titled “Missed Opotunities” because of comment made by Meso at WZ forum- thanks Meso if your reading , if only I had a chainsaw! I should have moved actually but was looking more at a cell further down the road when this one became more lightning active again after dying off temporarily and my preferred cell died totally.

Same system continued rebuilding on its northern side(moving almost parallel to the road) but I couldn’t get a decent position and this was about it…

Further on down the road on a new cell, had to settle for this location(highest point for a while) and shoot at distance, I should have climbed the hill seen in the left of the shots but after one carpet python over the foot and a wild pig earlier on…I was done with bush bashing for the night!
My favorite at this location

Another multi CG

And one last one for the night…



13th Jan, western storms did look very good this day but I was too tired from night before. I was lucky that the edge of one western system made it close enough for me to be able to take shots from the Ross River Dam(http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-19.42 ... 0&t=m&z=16)

Started on the wall with this(and one other in my album) before I copped some rain off the system.

These two I think are the best of this night but I was caught in the car park with the wall obstructing foreground, would have been so good if I could have nailed them with the reflection on the water!


A blowout…which sucks!

Best single CG of the night(IMHO).

Last of the night back on the wall, here you can see water reflection but nothing like what would have been with some of the closer strikes in the other photos.

There are a few others in my album too for anyone interested. I would appreciate any feedback or help if anyone wants to provide it but I am sure I will get there….just need more storms and preferably less than 100km away would be NICE!!!

Been playing with photoshop fixing the Blowout duo from the 12th. Here's one, any comments/critisims would be greatly appreciated.

Got work on this fix there, Thunder! Be interested to know the steps you used to achieve that?

Hey Thunder, you've got some great images there.

Cheers Meso and Rivergirl...hopefully there will be many more to come, just need the chasable storms!!!

Meso... I have to say this first, I know nothing about PS, I just "play" with "things" and usually have absolutely no idea what so ever as to what I am doing, I just play till I like!!! That being said, I also forgot to save that fix as a .psd before flattening it and saving. Which would be advatageous for learning and explaining *facepalm*! Anyways, here goes from my bad memory.... wound exposure back considerably, ever so slightly increased vibrance, clarity and sharpening, as well as some gamma correction(???) then decided it need a little cooling off so threw a blue filter on at 10% (???or thereabouts) Might have also played a little with brightness and black tones???
On other things, I have too say I love some of your pictures, you and the other Greg(Sorenson) have me hooked on the long exposure flowing water shots, I love this effect and definately want a go myself! Done some reading and went for a trip yesterday....only to be rained out! Oh well... will post the results when I get into some and have a few pictures to show for it!

Cool, thanks for the info, you did a good job of recovering the shot. It's good to have some post processing skills to help make your images "pop". Cheers for the comments on the flowing water thing...did you head to a waterfall or the ocean? There's not much to it really, just leave the shutter open for as long as you can get away with, depending on how intense you want the effect to be. Won't be the first time you get rained out either, stick at it tho, it does feel good the first time you get it right!

Anytime Meso, I am only to happy to talk about my photoshop experiences with others...it helps me learn more and understand too. Yeah not quite shaw on "post processing skills", might not be any of that here yet! Lol!
I love your waterfall shots(they were the first that really caught my eye) but not to be out done Greg Sorensons beach shots are like whoa too! Headed to rainforrest, got atleast 30-40km of accesable creeks 50km North of me depending ofcourse on what you class accesable...and the other advantage is waterfalls don't run away like storms do! I have been racking my brain for beach shot location and I have none that I can think of, just sand, sand and more sand.

A few shots from yesterday. Didn't do too well with the lightning, stupid lightning trigger!

Some nice captures there Thunder. That turned out to be quite a storm

Cheers Robyn! The storm split clean around Townsville...and didn't the locals shreik! LOL! Happens often which is why I make the best of it while I can!

Couple of shots from a nice shower poking around today...been a very SAD storm season locally!

Sorry to hear about the sad storm season up there Thunder. Still some nice photos there. Hope you have a great New Year with a thunderstorm coming out of nowhere

LOL Robyn, we did get a storm today...albiet an embedded bit of thundery junk, still a storm...here's some pics from a bit better example earlier on, this system was absorbed I guess you could say into the coastal streamy showers... made for a nice drop of rain too!





Absolutely love it when storms get that Blue(or Green) hue on them...the photos don't do justice to just how threatening the sky looked...





Storms again tomorow...possibly!

Well there you go Thunder I love the cumulus building in the first pic. Hope there are many more for you. We're just having the same boring weather. I see Karl is getting plenty of thunderstorms up in Darwin.