Friday, May 03, 2013

How to capture a lightning strike with your camera phone

Tone did just that:

Lightning strike

His solution? Shoot video and pull a still frame from it. That's a clever hack, if I do say so myself.

This photo is part of a Galaxy S3 flickr photo pool which I've been watching lately. It's provided terrific inspiration and is my daily reminder that It's not about the camera, it's about the photographer.

Tone's hack reminds me of the suggestion that Earnest Ward offered about drawing birds in motion:

Leonardo de Vinci included studies of birds in flight in his sketchbooks. But, unfortunately, most of us lack his gifted photographic memory. Modern point-and-shoot cameras can produce marvelous hi-res images that can capture the briefest moment in time, but are notorious for their lagging shutters. (Push the button and wait, and wait, for the shutter to release.) This can be very frustrating and will all but rule out trying to capture an image of your subject in motion.

Fortunate, if you have a modestly priced digital camera that you purchased within the past year or so you may very well have an excellent working alternative to "press and pray". Your camera may offer an HD video option. And HD video -- teamed with either your computer or large-screen TV -- can provide excellent photo-quality stills for you to study and learn from.

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