Tornado Warned Storm

Yesterday, we had several tornado warned storms in the area. Down here in southern Louisiana, we don’t get many tornado warned storms and we had quite a few. One of the storms passed by my house and I was able to get some pictures of it.

As the storm was coming into the area

Storm as it is passing my house

Another picture of the storm passing by my house.

Another picture of the storm passing by my house.

I hope you enjoy these shots. There was a fatality from this storm not too far from where I live.

There are clear skies today and no chances of rain for next few days. I’m hoping we can dry out before we get more rain.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and week. Talk to y’all later. Peace.

Lightning Shots - 3 different ways

We had storms come through here in southern Louisiana yesterday and there was lots of lightning. Once my duty day ended at four o’clock, I got into my car and tried to get some lightning shots. I had my phone shooting video and my Samsung Gear 360 was going in the back of my car. The shots below are from three different ways I was able to capture lightning.

This still shot was taken from a video I took on my Samsung Galaxy S10+

This shot was taken with the Lightning Camera app.

This still shot was taken from a video taken with my Samsung Gear 360 camera.

There are different ways to capture lightning if you have the patience. For example, I took over 40 minutes of video with the 360 camera and this was the best lightning strike I got.

I hope you enjoyed the lightning shots as much as I enjoyed being out there and getting them. I love storm photography.

Please like, comment, and subscribe if you haven’t. I hope you have an outstanding day. Peace.

My camera - my editor (part 1 - Snapseed)

Recently, I talked about my phone as my camera. I shared most of the camera apps I use on my phone (I forgot some after going through my phone). I also use my phone as my photography and video editor. I’m going to start a series on the different editors I use to edit my pictures and videos. Today I’m going to discuss Snapseed.

Snapseed is a free app for both Android and IOS. It has the capability to edit RAW images, which is a plus when shooting in RAW and needing to get content out quickly. Here is a screen shot of what is available.

As you can see, there are several different options when editing in Snapseed. If you want excellent tutorials on how to use Snapseed, Kenneth Wayne is an expert when it comes to editing in Snapseed. Here is his Instagram and YouTube. Check out his stuff if you want to learn Snapseed.

I hope this helps with an option to edit on your phone. Please like, comment, and subscribe if you haven’t. I hope you have a wonderful day. Peace.

How to Capture Lightning with your Phone

We recently had storms come through south of where I live. I was able to go out and get lightning shots. The video below is a quick tutorial on how I captured lightning with my phone.

I hope this is helpful for someone. If you have any questions, comments, please put them below. If you haven’t subscribed, please do.

Thanks and have a good one.

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:

Settings from last night’s storm

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.