Bued River presented in two ways

This photogenic river winds down from the high Cordilleras to the flat lands along the border of the provinces of La Union and Pangasinan, then ultimately discharges to the South China Sea at San Fabian town. 

Nature dictates that flowing water follows the path of least resistance. This perhaps guided the designers and builders of the Kennon Road early last century - the picturesque access to Baguio City was constructed by the side of the Bued River, following it to the mountains like a twin snake. Why the need to level mountains, when you can follow a clear path already carved out by water  rampaging seasonally over millions of years?

Here's presenting the river in two ways:

First, during a lightning storm in the early evening.

Shooting info - Brgy. Camp I, Rosario, La Union, September 30, 2019 at 8:18 pm, DJI Mavic 2 Pro, 10.30 mm, ISO 100, 4 sec, f/2.8, manual exposure in available light, near full frame resize to 800 x 533.

Link to high-res 1800 x 1200 version

Second, covered with a layer of fog early in the morning.

Shooting info - Brgy. Camp I, Rosario, La Union, October 5, 2019 at 6:53 am, DJI Mavic 2 Pro, 10.30 mm, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, f/6.3, manual exposure in available light, near full frame resize to 800 x 533.

Link to high-res 1800 x 1200 version

Easier way to capture lightning

I just discovered an easier way to capture lightning - use the time lapse function of the 7D II to continually do 30-second exposures. 

First, I set the aperture (normally wide open, the 16-35's IQ is excellent even at f/4) and ISO to properly expose the scene with a 30 second exposure, before the lightning bolt strikes. 

Next, I point the camera to the general direction of the sky where lighting strikes are active, fine tune the framing for composition, and manually pre-focus on a foreground object in the distance that I wish to be sharp. The deep DOF of the UWA lens should also render the lightning bolt in reasonably good focus.

At this point, I enable the 7D II's time lapse function, then press the shutter button. The 7D II will shoot long exposures non-stop until I turn it off when the lightning activity subsides. I usually set the interval between shots to 2 seconds to give me time to turn off the camera in between frames.

Here's a practice shot using this approach. I'm hoping the lightning display will be over a more photogenic location in the coming nights. Casting a wide net (long 30 second exposures), and doing this continually, should greatly increase the chances of catching a lightning formation at its sweet moment.

Shooting info - Bued River, Rosario, La Union, Philippines, June 22, 2019, Canon 7D MII + EF 16-35 f/4 L IS,

16 mm, f/4, ISO 200, 30 sec, manual exposure in available light, Uniqball UBH45/455B support, cropped to fit 16:9.

 1920 x 1080 version

Lightning with the good, old 5D MIII

When traveling light and wanting to maintain the capability to shoot various subjects, my "go to" gear is the very compact Sony RX10 IV. This allows me to shoot from 24 mm to 600 mm with decent image and video quality.

When shooting lightning though, I still bring out my good, old Canon 5D MIII and the 16-35 f4 IS from the camera bag. The corner-to-corner sharpness of the 16-35 f4 L IS is perfect for this application, while the big fat pixels of the 5D III allow long exposures which are necessary to catch the brief, unpredictable appearance of the subject.

Shooting info - Bued River, Rosario, La Union, Philippines, June 20,2019, Canon 5D MIII + EF 16-35 f/4 L IS,
24 mm, f/4, ISO 100, 30 sec, manual exposure in available light, Uniqball UBH45/455B support, cropped to fit 16:9.

 1920 x 1080 version

Catching lightning bolts with 30 fps @ 8 MP bursts (RX10 IV)

It was the first thunderstorm over the Bued River this end of summer, and this signals the start of my lightning photography season.

It's quite easy to shoot lightning during a thunderstorm at night - I just have to point the camera at a photogenic scene, focus manually, adjust the aperture and ISO for proper exposure, then open the shutter for 30 seconds. Hopefully, a photogenic lightning bolt will materialize within the frame during that period. If nothing interesting happens during the 30 second window, I delete the file and start all over again. 

Without an auto trigger or an ND filter for long exposures, it's nearly impossible to shoot lightning during daytime, which was the case during yesterday's thunderstorm. Fortunately, I have a camera that shoots 4K video - this allowed me to film the scene at 30 fps (or 29.97 fps to be exact) for extended periods. The chances of catching a lightning bolt at that frame rate is quite good. The downside is each frame is essentially a heavily compressed 8.3 MP jpeg file, without the processing flexibility of RAW files.

Here are a few frames caught yesterday. I took shelter in our garage and used the wider end of the Sony RX10 IV's zoom lens. All frames were grabbed from 4K clips, processed and downsized to 1920 x 1080. It's interesting to note that most of the lightning flashes happen very quickly, in about 1-2 frames. Combing frame-by-frame through many minutes of footage is a laborious process.

1920 x 1080 version

1920 x 1080 version

1920 x 1080 version

1920 x 1080 version

A composite of three frames:

1920 x 1080 version

And a short 4K footage from which one of the frames above was grabbed:

The heavens were on fire over Bued River last night

The long, hot summer has ended in our islands, and the migratory birds have flown back to their breeding grounds. Gone are my favorite flying subjects, but the rainclouds have started to visit with increased regularity and the night skies have become much more interesting and photogenic. 

Here's a couple of images from my first lightning hunt of the season. On this particularly humid night, the air was so still that almost all leaves of trees along Bued River were unmoving, and were rendered sharp even with a long exposure of 30 seconds. I got lucky with my choice of manually set focus distance - the nearby foliage and the far away lightning bolts were in reasonably good focus even at f/4.

The corner-to-corner sharpness of the EF 16-35 f/4 IS continues to amaze me. This little zoom has the highest satisfaction-to-cost ratio (STCR) among all lenses I've used so far. The big whites, and the 400 DO II, are stellar but their high cost drags down their SCTR.

_____

Shooting info - Bued River, Rosario, La Union, Philippines, June 13, 2017, Canon 5D MIII + EF 16-35 f/4 L IS,
35 mm, f/4, ISO 160, 30 sec, manual exposure in available light, Uniqball UBH45/455B support, cropped in the vertical to fit 16:9, resized to 800 x 450.

High-res 1920 x 1080 version

Shooting info - Bued River, Rosario, La Union, Philippines, June 13, 2017, Canon 5D MIII + EF 16-35 f/4 L IS,
35 mm, f/4, ISO 160, 30 sec, manual exposure in available light, Uniqball UBH45/455B support, near full frame resized to 800 x 533.

 High-res 1500 x 1000 version