How I catch lightnings

When I first saw some photographs of lightnings on the Internet I just thought “WoW!”, I was really amazed and didn’t even think about trying to do them by myself. Some time has passed (maybe some years) since that day and now I’ve got a good reflex camera – Canon 450D – that is helping me to discover the world of photography. So some months ago I told to my friend Luca that I would have like to make a good shot of lightning but that I never did it before so I didn’t know how to start. Luca told me that it was very easy: I had to use a tripod to fix my camera, set ISO to 100, exposure to 15-30 seconds and then only shot, make one photo after another hoping to capture at least one bolt (of course considering that all of this would happen in the context of a tornado or thunderstorm). Fortunately only some days after arrived a “good” weather, well at least very good for my first photo session of Nature’s power. I took my camera, set it up , went outside on the balcony and fixed it on the tripod. The thunderstorm was in act! I just started to shoot.

The brightest lightning I caught. On the second image you can notice a grey glow around the bolt, it suggests the absence of any information about the color due to the brightness

It was a little bit funny because while I was pointing the camera in one direction the lightnings fall in another one. I was also getting angry about that but then I remembered Luca’s words: “Capturing a lightning is mainly  patience and stroke of good luck” and I calmed.

from my first lightning session

A sort of eye in the sky / first session

from the first session

Every time I captured a lightning an emotional wave perturbed me from the inside. This feeling accompanied me through all my “lightning photo sessions” (although there were only few of them) and each time I hear a thunder or see a bolt a big wish to capture it emerge inside of me. Fortunately from my flat I have access to the roof where I can enjoy the almost 360° panorama. It’s my usual (although somewhat dangerous) place for lightning photography.

A closer look/ second session

A huge one / third session

Some days ago I made some photos trying not only to capture a lightning but also to create some composition with it, including some new objects into the frame (like cars at the crossroads).

Five lightnings. Crossroads / fifth session

I was left without words when I saw the lightning falling down right to the electric antenna! It lasted much more than the other bolts and immediately after it ended there was a black out of all the residential zone where I live! It was awesome!! Just emotions, no words

It was more than simple "Wow!"

The same day some hours after I went for a walk with a friend. After a walk in the downtown we decided to gon at the seaside. I noticed some flashes in the sky and understood that a thunderstorm was near. In fact when we got to the place a lot of bolts were falling directly into the sea. Were we far enough from home and I hadn’t got my camera with me. It was really a pity! That kind of feeling was eating me from inside and I just took my cellphone and say to myself: “Try to capture it!”. My friend laughed but he also took his phone and we started to shoot. It was exciting and funny: using the 1-2 megapixel phone camera that can make only simple still images and had absolutely no extra option like exposure, ISO, diaphragm etc. “It’s impossible” was repeating Peter and I was saying “Improbable, but not impossible”. How he was surprised when he captured hes first lightning using a cellphone!! After ten minutes and hundred of black photos finally I’d got a lightning! Oh it was amazing!

A lightning captured using my Nokia 5000

I don’t know why it happens but every time I climb on my roof and take my camera with me  to capture one of the fastest phenomena in the Nature, incredibly beautiful and fascinating – the lightning – I recharge myself watching, I would say admiring, the Nature’s power!

Nature's painting

While I was writing this post I was surprised by another thunderstorm! What a great thing! I stopped doing anything and run outside to take photographs and here are they:

Boom!

Real plasma

No comment

Different colours

The largest one

Three brothers

At last, if you want to try yourself in this type of photography then here’s what you’ll need:

- reflex camera (in order to manually set options like ISO, Exposure, F-stop)

- tripod (in order not to have any blur with long exposure)

- thunderstorm, patience and fortune!

Good luck!

At last, if you want to try yourself in this type of photography then here’s what you’ll need:

- reflex camera (to manually set options like ISO, Exposure, F-stop)

- tripod (in order not to have any blur with long exposure)

- thunderstorm, patience and fortune!

Good luck!

NB: the photographs above don’t contain any graphic manipulation except the Basic Adjustments in CameraRaw (White Balance, Exposure and Contrast) to achieve the closest result to the reality.

Spontaneity

In a relationship the spontaneity either is present from the very beginning or will be absent forever. When it is missing – it’s bad, but when it is only on one side – it’s much worse.

My first astro experience

Exactly one year and one month ago I relised that the ’starry heaven’ is my passion! How does it happen? While I was going to school (the final year) a conference about spots in the sun was oranized at my school and thanks to my teacher of Physics I had known about it and my curiosity took me up to there. I was surprised to see al lot of students in place.

[photo  students 1]

The organizers (from Astrocampania) showed us various pictures of solar surface with “small” black spots and told us a lot of interesting facts about sun.

[photo sun spots 2]

In the end they invited us to look at the sun inside a special telescope.

[photo telescope 3]

We were very curious and some of us were continually asking questions and explanations (I was one of them It was at that time that I met Luca – my future ‘maestro’ in astrophotography.

[photo Luca 4]

Luca told me that they use to go far from light pollution of big cities (like Naples) for the astronomical observations. So I asked if it was possible to join them and Astrocampania members were glad to accept a new entry in their group The trip to Pietrelcina (Benevento, South Italy) was on the 5th of April 2008. It was one of those trips called AstroGastro, in other words a little tradition of AstroCampania Group to go far from big city lights looking for a dark sky but also for a tasy food: a great way to combine two willings This time we would be received by a sort of farm “Il Sentiero della Rosa” (properly called ‘agriturismo’ in Italian) in a rural area not far from Pietrelcina. During our journey we met other astro-amateurs and on-site there were 10-12 of us. Among all I knew only Luca, so first of all we made our acquaintance of each other (break off our acquaintance with each other) and soon after there were a phase of telescope mounting that took almost one hour (during which I was following Lucas actions and listening his explanations about all the procedure). When everything was ready each astro-amateur started his “job”. One of the things I really liked was the presence of enthusiastic mind and not of competitiveness. It doesn’t matter if your telescope is a small “toy” or a dear and high-powered instrument, if you observe or photograph, but that kind of joy you feel when your eyes can see a celestial body (planet, comet, nebula, satellite, star) – a small small part of an unbounded space! Most probably I discovered this new feeling being there, far from  everyday caos and nearer to the cosmos silence. I saw Saturn with its rings (and the immense joy of  the beginner telescope’s owner), a casual artificial satellite, a wide-angle photo of some costellations made with a digital reflex camera, a photo of a star cluster that was made before my eyes using a notebook, a telescope and a modified reflex camera (by Luca).

[photo costellation 5]

I was amazed! After some hours of observetion, photographing and talking the farm owners offered us some wine and ham, so we were doubly happy. Then we made a traditional group photograph and thus the starting point of my astro odissey was definitely impressed.

[photo group 6]

Exactly one year and two months ago I realised that the ’starry heaven’ was my passion! How did it happen? While I was going to school (the final year) a conference about sun spots was organized at my school and thanks to my teacher of Physics I had known about it and my curiosity took me up to there. I was surprised to see a lot of students in place.

The organizers (from AstroCampania) showed us various pictures of solar surface with “small” black spots and told us a lot of interesting facts about sun.

In the end they invited us to look at the sun inside a special telescope.

We were very curious and some of us were continually asking questions and explanations (I was one of them It was at that time that I met Luca D’Avino – my future ‘maestro’ in astrophotography.

Luca told me that they used to go far from light pollution of big cities (like Naples) for the astronomical observations. So I asked if it was possible to join them and Astrocampania members were glad to accept a new entry in their group The trip to Pietrelcina (Benevento, South Italy) was on the 5th of April 2008. It was one of those trips called AstroGastro, in other words a little tradition of AstroCampania Group to go far from big city lights looking not only for a dark sky, but also for a tasy food: a great way to combine two wishes :) This time we would be received by a sort of farm “Il Sentiero della Rosa” (properly called ‘agriturismo’ in Italian) in a rural area not far from Pietrelcina. During our journey we met other astro-amateurs and on-site there were 10-12 of us. Among all I knew only Luca, so first of all we made our acquaintance of each other and soon after there were a phase of telescope mounting that took almost one hour (during which I was following Luca’s actions and listening to his explanations about all the procedure). When everything was ready each astro-amateur started his “job”. One of the things I really liked was the presence of enthusiastic mind and no competitiveness. It doesn’t matter if your telescope is a small “toy” or a expensive and high-powered instrument, if you observe or photograph, but that kind of joy you feel when your eyes can see a celestial body (planet, comet, nebula, satellite, star) that is a small small part of an unbounded space! Most probably I discovered this new feeling while being there, far from  everyday chaos and nearer to the cosmos silence. I saw Saturn with its rings (and the immense joy of  the beginner telescope’s owner), a casual artificial satellite, a wide-angle photo of some constellations made with a digital reflex camera, a photo of a star cluster that was made before my eyes using a notebook, a telescope and a modified reflex camera (by Luca).

I was amazed! After some hours of observations, photographing and talking the farm owners offered us some wine and ham, so we were doubly happy. Then we made a traditional group photograph and thus the starting point of my astro odyssey was definitely impressed.

Extraordinary professor Ambrosino

I’m studying Physics at the Federico II University of Naples and there are two professors that lecture in our department: one for theory and one for practice (exercises). The latter has an excellent approach in making things clear and accessible. Moreover he makes us solve some problems and if we can’t find a solution we just discuss it all together and then he shows us a right solution on the blackboard. Sometimes he plays a trick on us: for instance he solves a problem in some way (and we copy all the text from the board to our notebooks) and then he just asks to all of us who agrees with such a result and who disagrees (by rising our hands). And here is a crucial point: he waits some time and then he draws

skull and crossbones

a skull and crossbones on the blackboard which means that the solution he has written is absolutely wrong! And all the students start to laugh, but those who have agreed with his solution and have copied it to their notebooks feel really stupid! But it works! When you realize that you are wrong – you can learn, and this is the professor’s aim! So he does his job very well (moreover he jokes frequently and so his lessons are never boring). There is another thing about professor’s clever trick: when he makes it once it’s okay and you think: “Oh, he will not serve that trick twice!”, but no!! The fun thing is that he makes fool of us again and again! And we just try to learn in order not to be silly fools forever

At the moment

Life is going on and every day we fill it with different moments, events, things. One of them is music. It seems to be an essential part of our life (at least sometimes).

Listening is feeling. Song of the moment: Lily Allen – Not Fair

Watching is feeling. Video of the moment:

Loving is living.

I think . . .

With words you can say many things, but without them you can say much more.

Monte Somma and folklore in spring

Living in Campania (province of Naples) is a great thing! Here there are some place that are incredibly beautiful and one of them is Monte Somma – a mountain representing a part of the ancient Vesuvius crater. In spring, especially in this period there is a local tradition to climb it up to the top and to organize a folklore events with dances, songs, wine and in the end torch-light processions. On Saturday morning my dear friend Luca invited me to go for a walk over that mountain. Even if I hadn’t my camera with me I was very excited to spend some time taking, walking and enjoying the contact with nature. Moreover my friend had bought a new macro lens for his camera and so I had an opportunity to try it Together we made some photos that capture the folklore spirit and the festive mood of people we met there. Luca has got also a zoom lens and so the most of shots we could take at some distance in order not to disturb the celebrations and to take only natural expressions of people’s faces. It was a great day, as usual (when I meet Luca)!

Here are some photos:

singing

Luca

making the rhythm

singing and playing

feeling the music

in the dance

rhythm and joy

My blog is finally completed

After years (I can say) my blog is finished! Yahoo! Finally all the information about myself is concentrated in the same place and now people all over the world (not only my friends) can follow me in the endless world of web. Probably my blog won’t be updated daily, but any news relating to me could be find here, with all my social network contacts and all my new photographs. I hope you’ll have a good time navigating through my blog.