Donnerkeil!

Gallery: Man & NaturePosted August 4, 2012499 views18 comments

'Donnerkeil' is a German word for 'thunderbolt', but is commonly used for an exclamation of surprise ('My Heavens!', 'Oh, s**t!', etc.).
Pretty much what I thought when I drove 8 miles up to Mesa Verde to get a better view of an amazing lightning storm over Montezuma Valley in SW Colorado. And then again when I opened this up in ACR. I only saw brilliant flashes and dark skies during the storm, but the sensor saw differently.
About the only PP I did here was in ACR and that was to reduce the areas of overexposure to better define the bolts.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Canon 5DII w/24-105 lens @ 24mm
30 sec./f5.6 ISO 100

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on August 4, 2012 at 10:32 PM

Does Donnerkeil also mean WOW!? Pretty incredible. Love the cloud movement, it adds so much drama to an already energy rich image. Nice work.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Lundh on August 5, 2012 at 3:20 AM

Sweet lighting catch!

Registered on April 28, 2004, 774 Posts, 4351 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gosewisch on August 5, 2012 at 9:10 AM

Great shot. I went to the large image and scrolled it up to give a different crop. It essentially takes off the top 1/4. It makes a stronger image for me and helps to focus on the lightening bolt. Its amazing what the camera sees that we don't.
G

Registered on June 3, 2012, 17 Posts, 59 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on August 5, 2012 at 12:03 PM

Nice catch, John! The main bolt still is a bit overexposed, up top especially. I think f/9 would have done the trick, pretty sure you would have still retained all the sky/landscape detail with that exposure. If necessary bump up the ISO to 200 if it is still too dark. But this is pretty cool despite my nits

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Reed on August 5, 2012 at 12:15 PM

Ausgezeichnet blitzkreig.... Grade 9 history has provided me with my only German...but somehow I think that works for this photo....lol

Registered on September 19, 2009, 198 Posts, 1074 Comments

Comment posted by R.Bill Moser on August 5, 2012 at 1:07 PM

Cool shot and great light and colors in the sky

Registered on January 29, 2010, 285 Posts, 4281 Comments

Comment posted by John Mumaw on August 5, 2012 at 2:10 PM

Thanks, folks. I appreciate the tips, too.
You're right, Stan...I was in a hurry here and should have thought through my exposure settings a bit more.

Registered on September 9, 2005, 62 Posts, 2289 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Metternich on August 5, 2012 at 2:15 PM

Sweet!

Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments

Comment posted by Oleg Kuchorenko on August 5, 2012 at 2:43 PM

wow..

Registered on July 2, 2012, 9 Posts, 111 Comments

Comment posted by Kory Lidstrom on August 5, 2012 at 4:36 PM

Sweet capture! Love the dramatic clouds and different shades of color in them. The bolt is, of course, awesome. My only suggestion: I might actually clone out the trees on the very right side of the horizon. They are a bit distracting to me and I honestly think that a flat horizon line all the way across would strengthen this already nice image.

Registered on November 19, 2008, 49 Posts, 1035 Comments

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on August 5, 2012 at 6:31 PM

Potzblitz (Ho** Mol**), that's an awesome shot.

Registered on March 6, 2011, 95 Posts, 847 Comments

Comment posted by Dean Sauskojus on August 5, 2012 at 8:16 PM

Love how the bolt comes out of surrounding clouds. Spectacular shot John!

Registered on September 29, 2009, 137 Posts, 2659 Comments

Comment posted by Anil Rao on August 5, 2012 at 9:26 PM

This is simply gorgeous. Powerful, mysterious and beautiful.

Registered on November 15, 2003, 234 Posts, 4923 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on August 5, 2012 at 10:20 PM

Sweet catch John. I like the crop idea, and would take some from the left as well.

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Wick Smith on August 6, 2012 at 3:26 PM

Fabulous image! I have no idea how you might have metered for the lightning so it was not blown out

I like it just the way it is.

Registered on June 12, 2009, 91 Posts, 379 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on August 6, 2012 at 6:03 PM

Wonderful cloud color transition through the sky and I like seeing the rain along the horizon. I might be inclined to darken all of the foreground to eliminate the spot lights and compare. Very cool cloudscape image, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Jon Daining on August 6, 2012 at 9:23 PM

John, I enjoy how the lightning highlights the falling streaks of rain. Also, the cloud movement makes this a dynamic image.

Registered on February 25, 2012, 25 Posts, 191 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on August 7, 2012 at 7:20 AM

Powerful image John. Excellent job on the exposure.

BTW - I hope you understand that because of the city lights I need to move this over to the M&N Gallery. Please contact me or one of the other moderators if you have an issue with this.

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments