| In the early
evening a storm developed just off the north edge of Lake Pontchartrain
and drifted slowly SW. I was able to shoot at the distant storm and
get some very nice shots. Even though it was always about 10 miles
off, quite a few very nice bolts shot out of the storm. At first
the camcorder did fine. I didn't dare stop the camcorder for fear
that it would start acting up again. Lightning would strike out of
the storm for 5 to 10 minutes and then stop for about the same amount of
time. During one of the breaks when no lightning occurred, I had
to stop. I saw that after 15 minutes of recording the camcorder had
acted up, even worse than it had during the August 9 storm. I kept
trying to clean the heads, but it didn't help. I kept recording anyway.
The shots above
occurred between 6:43 and 7:33 pm. Once again, thanks to the fantastic
help of Mike Pendergast, 10 of the last 12 shots above could be repaired
by him. It is great to have a good friend to help out like this.
Thanks Mike!
About 7:35 pm
there was a break as a shower developed over me. When it ended I
could shoot at the storm once again until just after 8 pm, but the lightning
was so messed up on the tape, that it is not worth attempting to repair
any of them. The best bolts of the storm are the ones above.
Two days later
on Monday morning, I sent in the camcorder to Sony for repairs. I
couldn't stand the thought of missing any late season storms, so I ordered
a new one. This would give me a chance to shoot with two camcorders
and cover twice the horizon once the first one is fixed. |
