Saturday, July 16, 2005

A near miss


Softball players and parents listen to game delay instructions as lightning flashes nearby during the TXAFA State Tournament at Ford Park in Beaumont on Friday, June 8, 2005.

Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

I'll admit the foreground is... well... it sucks, but it's hard to predict lightning. I'm filing this under "it can be done." Next time it will be better. For the techies, it's at f/22 on 200 iso at about 1/50th and hand held with a 80~200mm zoom.
Enough for now,

6 comments:

Bryon Houlgrave said...

But the concentration isn't on the backs of the people, so I wouldn't assess it as a sucky foreground. This is a great moment. I'm glad you lived to post it. :-) Those light towers are pretty close.

Mark M. Hancock said...

Lens compression.

CarmenSisson said...

These are always good shots to get "just in case." As awful as it is to say this, if some player or spectator gets struck by lightning on the field, this photo will be front page news, sucky foreground and all.

Marie said...

It still tells a story I think.
Now, if you had caught the lightening coming down that flag pole and striking one of the person's in the foreground, then that would have been a keeper, I think. Just kidding of course...

Caleb said...

How many frames did it take you to get this shot?

Mark M. Hancock said...

I probably shot 30 frames for this. Lightning pulses in the sky and then strikes one to three times. If you see the pulse during the day, fire three to five frames and cross your fingers. At night use a tripod (much easier).