The Chances

How a 250+ Pound Couch Potato Got Healthy

Thursday, August 14, 2003

First off, this isn't a political post.

Did Arnold Schwarzennegger grant a 30-second photo session for this week's cover of Time Magazine?  Even if they did it in the midst of a 5-minute interview, I've seen better pictures taken off the David Letterman set.  This has got to be the worst professional "portrait" I've ever seen!  He was moving his hands, so they're out of focus, which I don't mind too much... but his face isn't 100% sharp either.  His hair's out of place and he's sitting on what looks to be a plywood box.

 


After seeing this, I can say that even my 11-year-old niece can be a successful Time Magazine photographer.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

A little background here, I live in Northern California, where summers get very dry, and very hot.  We recently had a week or two with consistently over-100 degree temps, mostly 103 and higher.  We got a reprieve this past week, when a nice little thunderstorm rolled into town.

Thursday night I went to see my friend's band play, and as they were tearing everything down, I saw the storm in the distance.  You couldn't miss it, the lightning was striking literally every 30 seconds or less.  I told my wife I would have to ditch her, as this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

As I was driving out to the Sutter Buttes, the lighting was striking directly in front of me, and I kept worrying that I would miss the storm.  It's happened to me before, I've had to eat dinner when it started, and when I finish dinner, the storm is gone.  This wasn't the case this time around.

Out in the buttes, I have my "favorite" spot for nighttime viewing.  I've used it for stargazing, used it for daytime photography, even used it for daydreaming.  When I got to this spot, I got out of the car and started taking pictures.  I already had some of the Portra 400UC film that Kodak had a sale on last month.

Once the camera was on the tripod, the first thing I did was point the camera down towards the street, which was heading beyond the hills.  I did this because that was the direction the lightning was striking on my way there.  Boy did I get a surprise when it struck directly behind me and to the right!



Even though there's no lightning in the shot, I love the surreal effect the light gave.  The only thing I wish was that there was something better to look at in the sky!

OK, so I turned the camera to the right, which was where the storm seemed to have moved to.  Now this was more like it!



The only thing I was afraid of was missing the lightning, so I took all the pictures at 28mm.  All the pictures were f3.5, f4, and f4.5.  The times varied, due to not knowing when lightning would strike... anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.



After shooting the rest of the Portra, I drove another 5 miles down the road to the Sutter Bypass.  There, I walked through a field and saw an interesting sight: the lights from the city beyond a distant bluff were reflecting off the clouds in the sky!  I loaded the camera with some Fuji SuperHQ 100, and at f4, I shot a 5-minute exposure.



This is the most fun I've had taking pictures in a long, long time.  While out in the middle of the night (midnight to 2:30am), with the nice summer breese blowing, all I kept thinking was this is what it's all about.

I also learned a few things.  First off, I think I should have used a smaller aperture for the lightning itself, f8 perhaps, which would have made the bolts a bit more defined.  I think that I should have taken some at 28mm and some at maybe 100mm, instead of taking them all the same.  Finally, for the pictures at the end of the night, when I was shooting the affects of the lightning on the sky instead of the lightning itself, I should have used faster film.

If you've made it this far, go here for more pictures from that night.