Lighting up the Night in Colorado

[JimFox]

Heading back from a visit up to Mt Evans in Colorado, the storm that was rolling in up there, hit full force as I got back down onto the plains. As I was driving up I-25 north of Denver, it was a lightning storm going off like crazy to the East. There was no real place to pull off and shoot it, most of the exits had too much man made stuff around, but as I exited on Hwy 34, I quickly pulled off down the first road I could find where there was farming. And for about 15 minutes I got the tail end of the storm. While the lightning wasn't as impressive as 30 minutes earlier, it was still a joy to see.

I captured this with just locking in the shutter on my Remote Release, I think this was a 15 second exposure, and the Lightning was still going off with strikes about one a minute or so. The ground is unlevel, but I think it's the way that land slopes there, but I would be curious if it bothers anyone. I am usually really picking about unlevel ground, but for some reason it's not bothering me here. There are a few farm structures on the horizon also, in case anyone was wondering. Oh, and the moon was rising, but is hidden behind the clouds there. It's what's providing that light in the top. It also poked up over the clouds about 5 minutes into my shooting. I think with the moon not hidden by the clouds is cool too, but I will process one of those later.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

 

[Ben Egbert]

This is an interesting shot Jim, and the slope does not bother me, nor does the buildings. The lack of foreground interest does detract slightly.

 

[JimFox]

This is an interesting shot Jim, and the slope does not bother me, nor does the buildings. The lack of foreground interest does detract slightly.

Thanks so much Ben. It is a plowed field, so there is some detail there. I kept it to a small portion of the frame so as not to distract, but enough to be an anchor. I could brighten up the ground a bit more for some more detail, but as this stands it's just 1 exposure, and other then adding some contrast it's not too far from straight out of the camera.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Great sky to go with the lightning bolts. Nice shot Jim.

 

[AlanLichty]

Great sky and lightning. As for the foreground - well that's one of the reasons I don't venture much east of the Rockies. I like having a mountain at least somewhere on my horizons.

 

[JimFox]

Great sky to go with the lightning bolts. Nice shot Jim.

Thanks Jameel! It was definitely a great sight to behold.

 

[JimFox]

Great sky and lightning. As for the foreground - well that's one of the reasons I don't venture much east of the Rockies. I like having a mountain at least somewhere on my horizons.

Thanks Alan, glad you liked this.

 

[Bart Carrig]

Very cool image, Jim. It's a great sight, and a great exposure. No problem with the horizon; it's not an uncommon occurrence around here as well. I'm impressed with your ability to get this event, properly exposed, in the first place. I'd be out there scratching my head as to what to do. One of the great benefits of this forum.

Bart

 

[Jim Dockery]

I like it, and the horizon/bland ground doesn't bother me a bit since the sky is the show. I wish the clouds were either sharp (impossible with the long exposure) or even more blurred (blending/averaging multiple shots?) mixing more shots would also let you blend in more lightning strikes.