Photo Essay
by Walt Frerck
W
ith summer here, thunder-
storms will be in the Big
Bend along with lightning,
hail, rain, high winds and sometimes
tornadoes. Lightning is fun to watch but
deadly. Even so, people like me will still
get out to take pictures. Staying in a
vehicle while taking photos is good for
several reasons; first, it keeps both you
and your camera from getting wet, and,
more importantly, vehicles offer protec-
tion from lightning.
I use a Nikon, but there are a variety
of digital cameras available in all price
ranges and most of them now even take
video. I also carry an Olympus digital
splash camera in a case on my belt. It
has a three-to-one wide-angle zoom lens
and also takes video.
Video offers another way to go and
lets the lightning flash while your cam-
era is running. It is important to have the
camera on a tripod or braced on some-
thing to stop shaking. It also helps if you
have a video camera with a locking focus
to stop it from constantly trying to focus.
TV stations and newspapers are
always looking for good pictures and
video of weather.
I started taking photos before the digital
age, but now there is so much more to work
with. I hope you’ll get out and have fun.
Taken just east of Alpine looking east from Country Club Estates Drive, I had set my Nikon D-90 camera on a tripod and made a four
minute long exposure using a Nikon 18-200 zoom lens at set at f:11. This exposure, at about 9:15 p.m., let lightning happen during the time
the shutter was open, and the f:11 lens setting was about right for the bright flash of lightning, which only lasted a most two seconds. I was
lucky.
14
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2010