This was taken a long time ago on film . I used a Pentax ME , a Asahi Pentax 50mm f1.2 and iso 100 film.
Film was incredible to lightning photography because you just wouldn’t get any noise .
I’m starting to get better at daytime lightning .
ISO 100 / -3ev / F16 / 1/80s exposure time with a strike master lightning trigger . I saw the sensor dust and immediately cleaned it lol .
Just had a daytime cell come through , it’s tough to get good strikes without over exposing .
I was lucky enough to have a slow moving low precipitation cell to my east , which is a Lightning photographers dream .
I used a Nikon D610 with a sigma 24-70mm f2.8 and a strike finder lightning trigger .
I also used a Nikon D500 Tokina AT-X 16–28mm f/2.8 PRO FX. Miops Lightning Trigger
Venice Florida .
thought I’d share a project I’ve been tinkering with.
First, this is not replacing my normal lightning photography setup. I already shoot lightning with two DSLRs and dedicated lightning triggers. Those work well when I’m awake and actively photographing storms.
This project is aimed at a different problem.
I’m trying to build a camera that can sit on my lanai overnight waiting for thunderstorms. The goal is to have it remain powered and ready, then start capturing Night Lapse images when storm activity begins, stop when things become quiet, and hopefully re-arm itself if another storm moves through later.
I’m using a GoPro Hero 11 with GoPro Labs firmware, a pass-through battery door, and a 10,000 mAh external battery pack. The battery mount became its own little engineering project after I discovered that the battery’s smooth plastic housing would slowly slip in the clamp. After a lot of trial and error I ended up using a Ulanzi phone clamp and retention straps to keep everything secure.
The hardware has been surprisingly straightforward compared to the software side. Most of my time has been spent experimenting with GoPro Labs settings, trigger behavior, and trying to find a way to make the camera behave more like an unattended storm camera rather than a traditional timelapse camera.
This is still very much a work in progress. I don’t know yet whether the concept will fully work the way I envision it. But that’s part of the fun. I’m mainly interested in seeing how far I can push a GoPro beyond what it was originally designed to do.
Thanks to u/i_am_a_photodog2 for help with the script troubleshooting.
Current GoPro script
mNPr0fWe5p1x-.5i1M1w55!SM5-1!2N!R
I’ve been playing with GoPro Labs on a Hero 11 and I’m trying to figure out if anyone has used it for lightning photography.
What I’m really trying to do is have the GoPro act more like a smart timelapse camera.
Instead of running a night timelapse for 6+ hours and coming back to thousands of frames, I’d like it to:
Sit idle while nothing is happening
Detect lightning activity
Start a night timelapse
Continue recording while the storm is active
Stop when activity dies down
Then automatically start again if another storm develops later
Basically, I want the camera to wake up when lightning starts and go back to sleep when the show is over.
I’ve been experimenting with motion detection in GoPro Labs, but I haven’t found a way to make it behave like this yet.
Has anyone successfully done something similar, or am I asking the GoPro labsto do something it simply wasn’t designed for?
Here is some lightning I’ve captured this year here in Venice , Florida . I use a Nikon D610 and a Nikon D500. My lenses are Sigma 24-70 F2.8 and Tokina 16-28 f2.8. I use a Miops lightning trigger and a Strikefinder . I’ve been interested in storms my whole life .