Halloween came early to haunted Lone Mtn across the street!

HiloHawaiian · Sep 26, 2019

Sideways fork-lightning was happening right over my head tonight. I wish my XSP was handy, I’d have risked it. It was spectacular, and my D810 & I got soaking wet trying to shoot it.
I guess it was dangerous too, but it was staying in the clouds, so I squatted-down near my mailbox thinking there’s much higher, more attractive lightning targets than me....... Of course, I’ve never been too smart about safety when there’s a cool picture to be had! 14mm, f8, Bulb, wet...

Tufargon · Sep 26, 2019

Super cool picture Hilo!!

Trox · Sep 27, 2019

@HiloHawaiian What was your exposure time in bulb? Wide open in Pitch black until the flash and release? Bulb is not often represented on the digital cams nowadays as "bulb". My old Pentax Spotmatic had it though. Just not into film anymore. In my home location a shot like this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. 500 miles further north and it would be a common occurrence.

I love lightning shows. Saw a spectacular show on a train ride through Australia's Outback on the Indian-Pacific in the middle of the night where it appeared on the horizon behind us and over the course of 2 hours the storm overtook the train and passed right by giving an incredible two hour show out the window of my private compartment. I could even see kangaroos hunkering under bushes during the bolt flashes which was mind-blowing. Thanks for sharing. Brings back old memories from 1981!

HiloHawaiian · Sep 28, 2019

it was truly spectacular. I was kneeling next to my cement-brick mailbox as a support. Bulb opens the shutter until I let go of the button. It was pretty dark, so f8/11 is usually fine for lightning. If big bolts were hitting the ground nearby, I’d have been more concerned, but these were dancing in the clouds. I only got one good shot in 30 min. My bad timing mostly. This is a super-wide lens for a full-frame DSLR, and it filled the frame, that’s how close above it was. Thunder came 5 sec late, so maybe higher altitudes that it looked?? You can see water drops on lens causing soft-focus here and there, nothing much I could do about that. Good thing it was 80F, I was soaked. Camera was under t-shirt kinda-sorta, LOL.

I had them occasionally in Hilo, Hi b/c I was close to two 14k’ mountains. Here in AZ, they a seem to happen 3-4 times a year. I’m kinda surrounded by mtns. Next time, I’m launching an XSP to see what happens!

Trox · Sep 28, 2019

@HiloHawaiian Indeed, TIMING is the name of the game when waiting out Mother Nature for that Nat Geo one shot.

I live on the Pacific Ring of Fire with 1 dormant and 3 active volcanoes ranging from 45 miles to 110 miles away and all of them are in my line of sight at one time from the beach. The three active mountains have had a combined nine eruptions just since I came to AK in 1970 and the 4th volcano is sleeping with some steam plumes. I've been through several ash dumps from these and the photo ops are often incredible....IF you are in the the right spot at the right time.

My purchase of the EVO was solely for its camera on a flying tripod. I have other drones for "flying around" for fun. The EVO is my serious work tool. With 240fps @720p and a broad range of ISO I do hope to record volcanic lightning at night during the next eruption on video and not just a time exposure still, whenever that is. Having 4K 60fps for daylight and the still cam at 12mp I can't wait for the next seismic activity in my backyard to signal another impending eruption. This is one of the volcanoes, Mt. Redoubt, right across the street, er, Cook Inlet from me with a perfect unobstructed view, just like the rest of the volcanoes in this chain. The first pic is the 1990 eruption 45 miles away, the 2nd is the 2009 eruption. As I stated at the beginning of this comment, its all in the TIMING! Having an EVO to compliment all the video and still cameras I have has opened up a new dimension for my potential to get that money shot. (Photos are from the Public Domain, I wasn't that lucky back then.)

Good luck in your future shoots.

HiloHawaiian · Sep 28, 2019

Trox said:
@HiloHawaiian Indeed, TIMING is the name of the game when waiting out Mother Nature for that Nat Geo one shot. I live on the Pacific Ring of Fire with 1 dormant and 3 active volcanoes ranging from 45 miles to 110 miles away and all of them are in my line of sight at one time from the beach. The three active mountains have had a combined nine eruptions just since I came to AK in 1970 and the 4th volcano is sleeping with some steam plumes. I've been through several ash dumps from these and the photo ops are often incredible....IF you are in the the right spot at the right time.

My purchase of the EVO was solely for its camera on a flying tripod. I have other drones for "flying around" for fun. The EVO is my serious work tool. With 240fps @720p and a broad range of ISO I do hope to record volcanic lightning at night during the next eruption on video and not just a time exposure still, whenever that is. Having 4K 60fps for daylight and the still cam at 12mp I can't wait for the next seismic activity in my backyard to signal another impending eruption. This is one of the volcanoes, Mt. Redoubt, right across the street, er, Cook Inlet from me with a perfect unobstructed view, just like the rest of the volcanoes in this chain. The first pic is the 1990 eruption 45 miles away, the 2nd is the 2009 eruption. As I stated at the beginning of this comment, its all in the TIMING! Having an EVO to compliment all the video and still cameras I have has opened up a new dimension for my potential to get that money shot. (Photos are from the Public Domain, I wasn't that lucky back then.)

Good luck in your future shoots.

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Great photos!!! 45 miles, geez you gave clear skies! Yea, timing is key. I’m right with ya. My entire career has been photo/video, so, drones are flying cameras. My new iPhone is a pretty good 3 lens 4k/60 camera that does other stuff. I have D3300’s in each car incase I don’t take a bigger camera — nothing infuriates me more than seeing a “moment in time” lost because I wasn’t prepared. each one is unique, never to return...

Hawaii is kind of in the center of the ring, but not considered part of it. The Big Island restricts access to any volcanic/lava flow activity so severely (because tourists do amazingly stupid things), that you can’t get within 7 miles of anything interesting. Trying to fly a drone inside the zone means arrest, big fine, drone confiscation. No other island is close enough to shoot from... So, unless Mauna Loa erupts (biggest volcano on earth), folks can only watch the smaller events online, with everyone else. Also, they’re fountain volcanoes, hardly any ash explosions like yours, certainly nothing like 10-20-50k’ like the ring volcanoes — just 200-500’ fountains of lava.

Hey, a friend works for Hawaii Volcano National Park, and has been loaned to Alaska. I guess one of the 200 volcanoes in the Aleutians is gearing up??

Trox · Sep 29, 2019

HiloHawaiian said:
Great photos!!! 45 miles, geez you gave clear skies! Yea, timing is key. I’m right with ya. My entire career has been photo/video, so, drones are flying cameras. My new iPhone is a pretty good 3 lens 4k/60 camera that does other stuff. I have D3300’s in each car incase I don’t take a bigger camera — nothing infuriates me more than seeing a “moment in time” lost because I wasn’t prepared. each one is unique, never to return...

Hawaii is kind of in the center of the ring, but not considered part of it. The Big Island restricts access to any volcanic/lava flow activity so severely (because tourists do amazingly stupid things), that you can’t get within 7 miles of anything interesting. Trying to fly a drone inside the zone means arrest, big fine, drone confiscation. No other island is close enough to shoot from... So, unless Mauna Loa erupts (biggest volcano on earth), folks can only watch the smaller events online, with everyone else. Also, they’re fountain volcanoes, hardly any ash explosions like yours, certainly nothing like 10-20-50k’ like the ring volcanoes — just 200-500’ fountains of lava.

Hey, a friend works for Hawaii Volcano National Park, and has been loaned to Alaska. I guess one of the 200 volcanoes in the Aleutians is gearing up??

Actually your friend will be busier than that. We currently have three volcanoes out on the Chain that are in Condition Yellow which is an Aviation Advisory Level for flights moving back and forth from AK and Asia. Shishaldin, Cleveland and Semisopochnoi volcanoes, all of which have been active with intermittent eruptions all year long and longer. I get daily updates from the AK Volcano Observatory agency which includes all the volcanoes in my area too if they get active. We have webcam monitors on some and seismic recorders on most that are available to view online in real time.

I took a vacation in Hawaii to get my scuba certificate on Oahu (Hanama Bay) and ended up on the Big Island in March of 1974. Kilauea had started erupting several months earlier on the southwestern rift for the first time in years and strangely never since. My GF and I spent the night in our rentacar perched on the rim of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater looking across at the fountains blowing along a rift near the summit several miles away. We didn't know that big hole in the ground was just 35 yards in front of our bumper just past the rock retaining wall until daylight the next morning. What a shock!! In those days they were letting the helicopter services take tourists out during the day to fly over the eruption. I suspect the current situation still allows those roto-wing and fixed wing fly overs....if you can afford the trip. Maybe that is why they are banning drones due to the air traffic of manned aircraft. Funny that SEVEN miles restriction is intentionally set knowing that 99% of drones don't have the battery power to make a round trip of 14 miles. Nor a one way kamikaze 7 mile flight. LOL I just checked AirMap on the Big Island and it appears there are still lots of places that are unrestricted drone flying, even the summit of Mauna Kea. Big Island AirMap Restricted and Controlled Areas

There is no doubt Alaska's volcanoes have their own special character which does lend itself to some amazing photo ops but I do enjoy watching the lava flows of HA too. BTW, a fairly new technology involving very high frequency (VHF) radio emissions and other types of electromagnetic waves will now allow scientists to observe the lightning inside of ash plumes that would otherwise not be visible. This was invented here in Alaska beginning with the Mt. Augustine eruption of 2006 just 110 miles south of me across the Inlet. A 2009 eruption of Mt. Redoubt helped fine tune the technology as well as an eruption in Iceland in 2010. But I'll definitely be out there on the beach with my gear 24 hours a day when an event starts developing to capture my own side of the story.