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Juergen Zeidler's picture

Magic Lake Lightning

Lake Magic is located in Western Australia, about 300 km southeast of Perth. It is a strange little body of water– a naturally occurring salt lake with gypsum minerals at its base and a sandy, circular beach surrounding it. Due to the high salt concentration of the water it is impossible for you to sink, hence its name! I did some photography there in the evening and decided to return for sunrise. When I arrived at the lake it was still dark and I could see some lightning in the distance. Right at the moment when the sun had begun to rise a fast moving storm barreled straight towards me. I could see the clouds rolling in the sky. I hoped to catch a frame with some lightning and stopped down to f19 to increase the exposure to a few seconds. Then I took frame after frame while the storm moved into my direction. It was an eerie sight. When the storm arrived the reflection was gone and I running for cover. I had one frame with a thunderbolt. I don't have a device that triggers the shutter release if lightning strikes. Just luck!

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4 Comments

Nice! I like the colors. Trying to capture lighting is such a fun exhilarating experience. The only thing I would offer, and my work suffers much the same because I love wide angle, is maybe crop in a little so the lighting bolt is more prominent. OR a creative use of the transform tool in photoshop to bring the bolt out more could be cool. I still like it regardless.

Thanks, Kyle. Thank you very much for your input. Really appreciated and I definitively will give it a try. I don't use photoshop or Lightroom anymore, I moved to ON1 2024. So I am not sure about the transform tool which I have never used in my landscapes.

It’s just a tool in photoshop where you can “transform” certain elements of a photo. I really only use it to make something a little bigger/more prominent in frame when shooting wide. The key is to be subtle with it.

Voter #9 just rated this photo 1star. Some feedback on the quality would have been appreciated. This wasn't the case therefore I assume the obvious.