Tuesday's excessive heat resulted in much lightning late that night. Sleep was being its elusive self yet again, so I wandered about the house munching arrowroot cookies and observing the lightning from several vantage points: my den window, front porch, bedroom window, and patio doors.
I tried a photo from the bedroom window, but the screens were a problem because the phone wanted to focus on the screening rather than the light show. I wasn't about to start removing the screens with Sue sleeping just a few feet behind me, so I took the phone to the patio door downstairs.
I didn't go out but just opened the door a tad on a hot night and took a few photos. It was sheet lightning, so it just lit up the sky generally as in the following image. Both before and after the lightning flash the sky was almost black.
The lightning will show up much better in the clip, below. The show went on and on like this for a considerable time.
(You know that you can embiggen the video, right? Just click the middle icon of the three on the bottom right.)
The phone is amazing. It tells me to hold the phone steady for up to 10 seconds for night exposures, but it still keeps the image pretty sharp. I tried another app, for long exposures just to see how it would work, but it picked up unintentional camera movement because you can't hold a phone steady for 15 seconds, and its algorithm does not compensate for that. When I saw what was happening, I moved the phone even more, deliberately, and this ↓ is the fun result.
The power did go out but not for long. On our morning walk, I took a photo of our smoke-diminished sun. This happens every summer now, but I don't remember it too much in the first of our two decades here.
Meanwhile, we’ve probably all see stunning photos in our online haunts.
Well the lightening is causing most of the fires across North America, so we can't blame you Canadians for all the smoke. Here is foggy this morning, and I hope it will clear as the sun brings us to 90 degrees later on. I've a lot of moon photos that have the jiggle effect!
ReplyDeleteI should try that deliberately sometime.
DeleteThat storm was pretty impressive. We've been forecast one, but it will probably pass us by as usual.
ReplyDeleteNothing beats wandering around the house with arrowroot cookies during a late-night storm, it sounds like the perfect way to pass a sleepless night. Your deliberate camera-shaking experiment turned out so cool, it looks like abstract neon art instead of a failed photo. It is wild how smart phone cameras are now, though avoiding waking up Sue by staying downstairs was definitely a wise move. The photo of the smoke-dimmed sun is incredibly beautiful yet really sobering, it is crazy how common those smoky summer skies have become over the last few years. How has your week been?
ReplyDeleteWe're in the hazardous (and more) levels on the Air Quality index. The sky at the lake was yellow. I'd already left but my cousins took off after that. Smells smoky here.
ReplyDeleteMy cousins in the US, as far away as Laramie Wyoming, are feeling the effects too. It blows in and here in the Ottawa Valley.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember smoky days like this until the last few years. Climate change.
ReplyDeleteClimate change regrettably has now made these wildfires the new “norm” each Summer for the past three years or so. It is very difficult. In my area, we have AQI readings in the 400s today. 😔
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This morning is the first time we've seen wildfire smoke this year. I felt lucky, till now.
ReplyDeleteIn looking back over old blog entries, I've seen that we were getting wildfire smoke even a decade ago, and more. I don't know why I thought it's only been the last few summers. Maybe because it's been worse and lasted longer.
Don't eschew a mask when you go outside. Toxic particles are unseen and will get into your lungs.
-Kate
We're getting thunder and lightning here but also rain, so I'm hopeful that it won't cause fires. We don't need any more of them in the eastern part of the state. Or anywhere!
ReplyDeleteNice moody pics except for the ones of fire which are terrifying And I love the abstract one.
ReplyDeleteThe abstract light photograph you created by deliberately moving the phone was very clever and unexpectedly beautiful
ReplyDeleteThose fire photos are terrifying. I like the ICM-abstract shot! Colors and movement!
ReplyDeleteI don't recall wildfire smoke when I was a kid, it was rare in the area I spent summers in. In fact I don't recall seeing these types of fire like you said in the past 20 or so years.
One thing I miss about growing up on the farm which was on a treeless plain, was that it had spectacular viewing of storms coming, passing by and going. My house in a tree chocked outskirts of town however doesn't allow me to see anything that isn't directly overhead.
ReplyDeleteWe have wild fires blazing in the far NE of the state. It is smoky. You video captured the look well.
ReplyDeleteWe've had some scary yellow skies here this week.
ReplyDeleteThat is a fun juggly pic. I watched the lightning and counted time from strike to thunder rather compulsively. We have twice had a tree right beside a window hit. I also compulsively unplug my computer after it got fried.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, it is sublimely beautiful.
Mine has never been fried, but I did unplug it. I have burnt out two of those surge suppressors in the past.
DeleteThe video I saw of the fires there was of train employees in an engine waiting on a siding for another train to pass. Fire was all around them. Don't know how they survived the smoke.
ReplyDeleteI do love a good thunder and lightning storm, as long as it doesn't strike and do damage. We have had some stunners this summer.
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