Hidden

Hidden, Mossman Gorge – Steve Rutherford Landscape Photography Art Gallery.

This is an unframed, limited edition collection landscape photography print of only 25 units. It is printed on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl papers, structured to refract the highest values in colour and detail. It’s high-quality ink absorbing layer enables exceptional image quality with enormously detailed sharpness, and a very broad colour range, providing archival permanency of your artwork for over 100 years.

Canon 5D Mk 2, 15mm, F16, 1/4 sec, ISO 100, no filter, processed in Lightroom.

Uluru is the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, which stands looming over the red centre of Australia. The threat of storms rolling in all afternoon made up my decision to stand outside with a metal tripod, where i could risk the lightning or risk missing the shot. I think you can see what I chose.

Luckily the storm swept north and moved behind Uluru to make for the perfect background, as pockets of sunlight sweep across the rock.

Hidden, Mossman Gorge – Steve Rutherford Landscape Photography Art Gallery.

One of the keys of shooting in a storm, is to stay out of the storms way. Do your research as to the intensity of a storm and it’s expected path. Uluru was captured in an electrical storm. To stay safe in such an event, I use a common rule used by storm chasers and that is to count in seconds between a lightning strike and a clap of thunder. Roughly five seconds means storm is around five miles away. A safe distance in an electrical storm is over ten miles.

Lightning will seek out the tallest object (particularly something metal, like your tripod and camera) to earth against. There isn’t anything much taller that yourself when you stand in the desert. In terms of camera settings, underexpose your images by 1 stop to keep the drama in the shot, and show the looming dark of the storm. If you need to use a neutral density filter to help this, do so.