Lightning hunting

Last night, I went on a lightning hunt. Here in southern Louisiana, we had a marginal chance of thunderstorms/severe weather. Well, we got some and boy did we. In this post, I am going to share what I did to get shots like this with my phone.

Unedited shot taken with my Samsung Galaxy S10+ native camera

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ native camera has a professional setting, something like a DSLR. You can control everything with it: ISO, f-stop, focus, temperature, just about everything. I’ve been practicing during the last couple of storms to get this technique for using my phone down. These were my settings when I got this shot:

When I started shooting last night, the only difference was I had it set to 30 second shots, not 10 seconds. After a couple of washed out lightning strikes, I changed it to 10 seconds and the results were much better. The small sensor on the camera can not handle a lot of light. One of the key things for doing long exposure shots, you need to steady the phone somehow. Either use a tripod or a window mount for your car or some other way.

I hope this helps with those who want to catch lightning. Check out my last post for other camera options if you don’t have the Samsung Pro camera option on your phone.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will respond. If you haven’t subscribed, please do so. Thanks.

My phone - my camera

Since my hiatus last year, I’ve focused on getting better at mobile photography. I have my phone on me all the time so why not utilize the camera, practice and get better at it. In this post, I will show you the apps I use when taking pictures and shooting video.

Here are the apps I use for my mobile photography in no certain order of usage -

Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus native camera app - free

Open Camera - free (Google Play Store) (not available for IOS)

Manual cam - paid (Google Play Store) (not available for IOS)

Framelapse - (create timelapses) (Google Play Store) - free
(IOS) - paid (There is a free version on IOS)

Lightning camera - (capture lightning) (Google Play Store)
(IOS) it is called iLIghtningCam 2

Moment Pro camera - (Google Play Store) (no longer updated for Google Play Store)
(IOS)

Firstlight (Filmic Pro) - (Google Play Store) - paid
(IOS) - paid

Filmic Pro - (Videography/Timelapse) (Google Play Store) - paid
(IOS) - paid

I have provided links to the apps for both Google and IOS. The list above is in no particular order of usage. Some of the apps I use are not available on IOS but there are equivalent camera apps available. If there is enough interest, I will do in-depth posts on each app and dive deep into each one. Let me know if the comments below if you are interested and which app would you like to see.

Thanks and I hope you have fun using your phone to create awesomeness.

I'm back

Hello out there. I’m back from a long hiatus. Things have been unbelievably busy since I left this blog back in August of last year. Here’s a brief synopsis of what’s been going on.

I finished the Hold The Pass challenge from Gibborim at the beginning of September and went right into a Soulcon Challenge. It took me a while to recover from both of them.
I started working in the men’s ministry at a local church back in November. The pastor was interested in Soulcon and needed someone to lead it.

If I had to give 2020 a rating, I would give it one and half stars. The only reason it’s this high is because I’m alive and kicking. Let’s see:

Where I work, which is a local school board, there was a cyber attack that crippled us for several weeks.
While we were recovering from the cyber attack, we had to stop working because of the pandemic. Now, I have to answer help desk calls on Thursdays until we are cleared to go back to work.
As of now, our stuck, I mean, stay at home order is until May 15th. I have a feeling this is going to be extended even longer but we shall see.
My oldest daughter went from going to college to being an online college student. It’s a bit difficult when the degree is Industrial Electronics. She’s going to finish up her technical degree this summer.

It’s not all been rough, though.

I’ve purchased some photography/videography gear — four Moment lenses for my phone which are fun to use. There’s a 1.33mm Anamorphic lens, 58mm tele lens, 18mm wide lens, and a 10mm macro lens. I’ll be doing a review video on them soon.
I also got a new tripod from Neewer. This has been a wonderful purchase. I did a reveal (click on the link) video and it’s posted on my YouTube channel. A review video on this is also in the works.

I’m not sure how often I’m going to post on here. I will post at least once a week. It’ll depend on what’s going on.

Thanks and I’ll talk to you later.

I am not affiliated with any of the companies listed above. I just enjoy their products.

Day 29 of my 365 Project

John here.

Here is Day 29 of my 365 Project.

Day 28 of my 365 Project

John here.

Here is Day 28 of my 365 Project.

Day 27 of my 365 Project

John here.

Here is Day 27 of my 365 Project.