Lick The Stars

    Gear: Canon 5D Mk II | Canon 24-70 2.8 L

    Settings: ISO 400| f/5.6 | 180.0 | 24mm

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    Well Brisbane was lashed by thunderstorms last week - Wed, Thurs and Fri - producing a long awaited kick start to the 2010 Storm Season.

    Many super cells popped up delivering hail (tennis ball sized), micro bursts, huge amounts of lightning, superb cloud formations and even a water spout off the coast of Surfers Paradise. Amazing stuff.

    This cell was the Beenleigh cell from Friday that produced some very heavy rain and hail (we "punched the core" near Yatala on the M1) and delivered an amazing lightning show on it's way out to sea. We missed the best as driving - maybe next time!

    Storms

    A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by strong wind, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation, such as ice (ice storm), or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere (as in a dust storm, snowstorm, hailstorm, etc.).

    Storms are created when a center of low pressure develops, with a system of high pressure surrounding it. This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds, such as the cumulonimbus. Small, localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground, resulting in smaller disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds.

    Thunderstorm - A thunderstorm is a type of storm that generates lightning and the attendant thunder. It is normally accompanied by heavy precipitation. Thunderstorms occur throughout the world, with the highest frequency in tropical rainforest regions where there are conditions of high humidity and temperature along with atmospheric instability. These storms occur when high levels of condensation form in a volume of unstable air that generates deep, rapid, upward motion in the atmosphere. The heat energy creates powerful rising air currents that swirl upwards to the tropopause. Cool descending air currents produce strong downdraughts below the storm. After the storm has spent its energy, the rising currents die away and downdraughts break up the cloud. Individual storm clouds can measure 2–10 km across.

    Comments and faves

    1. Jacob Lambert, jacsonquerubin, Jesse4870, Mark--M, and 67 other people added this photo to their favorites.

    2. Antonio Carrillo (Ancalop) (29 months ago | reply)

      amazing light on the sky. lovely image.

      have a nice day.

    3. jacsonquerubin (29 months ago | reply)

      superb Matthew!

    4. Craig 'Lego' Lyons (29 months ago | reply)

      Woah! brilliant capture, love the colours the depth and the composition. you did good.

    5. Jesse4870 (29 months ago | reply)

      This is amazing Matt!

    6. darkpixels (29 months ago | reply)

      Great shot, very well exposed and I like the title.

    7. Mel Sinclair (29 months ago | reply)

      Nice! Yours turned out better than mine!

    8. Dan Rosenthal (29 months ago | reply)

      lovely. thanks for sharin'

    9. Matthew Stewart | Photographer (29 months ago | reply)

      There was a fair bit of layers and jiggery pokery to get it looking niceish.

    10. Arild Heitmann Photography (29 months ago | reply)

      Impressive!

      --
      Seen on my Flickr home page. (?)

    11. Marty Pouwelse (29 months ago | reply)

      This is fabulous. I love the interplay between the lightning, the clouds and the stars. Great work!

    12. Ed Brydon (29 months ago | reply)

      What a fantastic lightning show. Love what you did to create this image.

    13. Ian G Lincoln (29 months ago | reply)

      tremendous light and cloud formation, amazing image!!

    14. Dennis_F (29 months ago | reply)

      striking!

    15. blue fin art (29 months ago | reply)

      Wonderful range of colours and exposure

    16. Luciano Kuprešak (29 months ago | reply)

      fantastic shot
      awsome exposure

    17. dubbelt_halvslag (29 months ago | reply)

      Wonderful clouds!

    18. Dylan Toh (29 months ago | reply)

      that's freaky - I love the light that electricity produces from nature - top stuff

    19. Beth Wode (29 months ago | reply)

      Matthew this is brilliant! Love it.

    20. danishpm (29 months ago | reply)

      Great storm shot! Love that you got some stars in it too and the movement in the clouds.

    21. Stephen M Reid (29 months ago | reply)

      Love the colours Matthew. The long shutter speed and the cloud movement adds to the tension.

    22. MichaelSenior (29 months ago | reply)

      Ditto!!! That is a ripper of a shot mate. Hell yeh!!!

    23. David M Hogan (29 months ago | reply)

      Beautiful capture!!

    24. sjmc1 (29 months ago | reply)

      Wicked work on this matt.

    25. andrew katic (29 months ago | reply)

      nice matt.bring on the summer storms

    26. Christolakis (29 months ago | reply)

      Awesome shot mate

    27. This photo was invited and added to the Amazing Weather (Skies, Nature, Places) group.

    28. This photo was invited and added to the The Sky, Fantastic group.

    29. nick.lagos (29 months ago | reply)

      Nice one Matt... I think the hardest thing is predicting which way they are actually going to go... cheers

    30. agavephoto (29 months ago | reply)

      Nice movement in the clouds to the left. Good colour, too. Too bad no bolts came out for you, though.

    31. This photo was invited and added to the Friday Finds: Depth of Field - ends 7/7 group.

    32. This photo was invited and added to the STORMSCAPES group.

    33. Robstorm Photography (11 months ago | reply)

      Thats just ...WAW !

    34. This photo was invited and added to the Clouds, Storms, Sunsets & Sunrises group.

    35. This photo was invited and added to the There Be A Storm A Brewin! group.

    36. This photo was invited and added to the Extreme Weather (Invite or Approval Only) group.

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