Alexx/Richard: Whatever the weather, your pictures are beautiful. I think the "stormy" atmosphere rather "fits" with the acropolis. Am quite jealous of your trip, as those places are definitely on my bucket list : )

Since a second week was added, I'll add one more lightning shot of mine. A little blurry but I still like it.

Thanks, Jakeroo. I did think it went as well.

Pyonir - Wow it's breathtaking!!!

Hmm, I seem to have misplaced a message (I hope that's not all I lose today lol).

Anyway...

Pyonir: Another great photo. I have a few questions about it:
1) did you use an auto setting on your camera, or manually leave your aperature open (and no, I'm not trying to be forward lol)
2) did you use a tripod?
3) did you get drenched?
4) is that the same location as the other (and is that place still standing??)

These are "mammatus" or "mammatocumulus" clouds, named for what they resemble. While most people associate them with severe weather, they're actually usually a sign that "the worst has passed".

However, in this particular case, the hail/thunderstorm HAD been tracking north (as in this photo), but the surface winds were blowing in a southwardly direction and somehow the whole system swung around and came back at us from the west lol.

The sky looks very dark, but the picture was taken in the middle of the afternoon. I didn't snap too many, as I thought it might be more prudent to head for the basement instead (we do get tornadoes on the prairies, even this far north).

Hi Jakeroo,
1) This is from my old camera, a Canon G3. So I was using 15 second intervals (the shutter speed was set to 15 seconds). As soon as there was a flash, I ended the exposure (using a remote). So this exposure was 1/1.3 seconds at F2.2.
2) Yep, I was using a tripod
3) Nope, I was on a patio of an apartment complex with a roof overhead. :P it was barely raining where I was anyway...most Arizona storms are very isolated and usually lightning and wind heavy.
4) No, this was just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The lights you see on the horizon on the right side is actually downtown Phoenix. The water you see at the bottom of the pic is part of the Phoenix area canal system. The other shot was about 30 miles east, looking over Florence, Arizona.


Really like your pic by the way. Easily one of my favorite cloud formations.

Here's a Scottish sunset.

Pyonir, that lightning shot is very impressive!

I agree, a great capture.

Here's a New York sunset (sun rather obscured by buildings sadly.)

A memory from December

Pyonir: thank you so much for all the details. I've written down the specifics, so that I can put my camera on either manual or A-priority and try them out one day/night.

Anyone interested: I realise that most folks have "automatic" cameras these days ( am saddened that real film has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur), so many people aren't completely sure just what went on when they took a certain picture. All photos taken with digital cameras have data embedded in the picture file itself. It's not "readily" available, but several photo editing programs do show you the metadata information. Which is pretty cool, since if you see the results of certain settings (and assuming you have a digital SLR), you can "tweak" your settings on future efforts to try to get the result you really wanted in the first place. And, you don't even have to keep notes for every picture taken. Metafile data is also useful to photography contest judges, as they know what CAN be done with the original settings and what cannot (they can tell, for instance, if you "juiced up" the colours with an editor, or "airbrushed" any parts you didn't particularly like lol). It's part of the reason that nowadays (if the winner gets a substantial monetary award) judges ask for the actual file, rather than a print.

Martin: I actually LIKE the fact that the sun wasn't the star (no pun intended lol) in that photo... that made the picture ever so much more interesting with the shadows, sky colour and dominance of the building structures : )

Gees: December? That could have been a memory from MAY in my part of the world (giggles).

Jakeroo: What kind of camera do you have? Compact? SLR? DSLR? That'll make a huge difference. If you have a DSLR or SLR, this site is pretty good about explaining what kind of settings you would want to use: Lightning Tips

If you have a compact point and shoot, you'll still want to lock the focus to infinity (something I didn't do with my second photo). Most compact cameras you can do that, but you'd have to look at the owner's manual for your specific camera. The site above can still be used to give you a general idea about F-Stop and setting up though.

No more weather pics as there is a new two week theme. However I will leave this open in case you want to continue the camera discussion for a while.Thanks all for some wonderful weather pics. Truly impressive.

Pyonir: thanks so much for the link and info
Ren: awww, that's very nice of you! You can close it though. We can continue the convo in another thread (assuming i remember what it was I wanted to say lol).