August 3rd, 2008 William Coyle
Just a short post this time as I am busy working on unfinished products because of being sick last week. I have a busy August ahead and this is great news to me. With every engagement or wedding I do I become more bold in trying different things on location as well as in the digital dark room and this is a good thing. Also I wanted to pass a few photos on from this weeks storms. The first was from last night with lightning coming out the side of the tower in clear blue skies with one of the planets to the top left and the others were from a week ago south of Pungo.
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July 27th, 2008 William Coyle
Sometimes waiting around after you think storms have moved on or dyed pays off every so often as they did tonight. Tonight’s storms were scattered and went up fast and collapsed just as quick. This shot took place from a fresh and newly developed storm right over Virginia Beach. The storm was so fresh that it had not even reached a mature stage for lightning but had very heavy rain. The very first bolt to leap out of the top of the storm was from the photo below which was a pretty powerful lightning strike. The storm moved to the East and most of the lightning from the rest of the storm was in the heavy rain core and not visible. Also another note with concern to lightning and cameras is I have noticed a difference in photo quality between the Nikon D200 and the Nikon D300. I still have not locked on if it is just atmospheric conditions or if lightning has different effect on a camera with a CCD or a Cmos sensor. I will tell you that it seems like the Nikon D300 is a lot more sensitive to lightning strike like the one below then the D200 was. I will have to take some more shots before I can give a final answer to the question.
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July 21st, 2008 William Coyle
There is nothing better then putting the camera in front of a beautiful and fun spirited family and I experienced this during the weekend. I meant Melissa and her two children Maya and Trey in Dec of 2007 to talk about her upcoming wedding in Dec of 2008 and right off the bat I knew how much fun it was going to be taking photos of her wedding as well as the family portraits we took this weekend. Melissa’s fiancee Marvin is serving in the armed forces and has been gone for sometime. When we meant Melissa told me that he would not be back until just before the wedding and we would not be able to take advantage of an engagement session which I myself personally enjoy doing. But Melissa told me that he might make a surprise entrance in August sometime and I would get to meet him as well as get an engagement session in before his return. It was funny every time Marvin’s name came up or the possibility of him coming home for a short visit it was like someone turning the switch on in a big power plant as she would get very excited and glow with happiness. My figures are crossed for you Melissa and I am sure we will be talking about where to shoot your engagement session very soon. Here are a couple of photos from this weekend. This was the first time I have shot at Seashore State Park. Thanks guys for being so much fun to work with and cant wait to enjoy your company if front of the camera again.
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July 10th, 2008 William Coyle
I make a habit to look up at the sky whenever I get time and sometimes I see amazing things that most people will miss just because they don’t take the time to look up and admire the beauty that nature has to offer above our heads. Besides weddings and portraits I love what the skies have to offer which could be lightning, sunsets,shooting star or even a rare event of aurora. Somethings are burned in your mind forever like the very first time I saw the Northern Lights in Virginia. I remember the date of November 8, 2004 like it was yesterday as I was watching the data from a solar flare that left the sun two days before the big event. All the info and reports concluded that the lights were visible even further south then Virginia. I drove out to Back Bay past the North Carolina border to a spot that I have used for taking pictures of the stars or for meteor shower events which takes about thirty minute to get to from my location. During the drive I would look to the North and be somewhat disappointed to not see any glimpse of color in the sky. I pulled up to the location, turned the headlights off in the car and stepped out to a jaw dropping display of one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. This was the first time I have witness the Northern Lights and everything I have read about them took place right in front of my eyes. The colors of orange, yellow, green, and even some blues and purple moved across the black velvet starry sky. I stood there looking and lost my train of thought forgetting that I need to set up the camera to record this event. I took photos for about an hour before the lights started to draw back to the North. I came home to edit the photos sending one to the Virginia Pilot newspaper which was used in a large article on the front page. The response from the photo was overwhelming and I received so many orders for the photo. I remember one that I sold where a couple had a grandfather who died two minutes before the photo was taken. The eleven year solar cycle is on the upward spiral so I look forward to new sun spots and maybe another chance at this type of photography.
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July 6th, 2008 William Coyle
Another round of storms more toward the South kept us out of the heavy rain but not the lightning. This shot was taken last night around 9:30 p.m. in front of the Virginia Beach Town Center.. Sometimes as storms weaken they will produce great anvil crawlers that can stretch for many miles outward from the main part of the storm as these did. The main part of the storms were located in Elizabeth City and further south and west but the lightning in the top of the storm would travel along the blown off tops of the storm call the Anvil. The Anvil has light rain and takes time to build a charge up in the high base of the clouds but when it releases it’s energy some of the most spectacular lightning can happen.
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