Lightning Inside of a WaterSpout..Unbelievable Picture

It may be a waterspout, however it may be the acoustic shockwave propogating from the bolt. In a saturated or high relative humidity airmass, the shockwave front becomes visible similar to a jet that is flying supersonic through an airmass where you can see its cone of 'Not Silence' ....

Very cool shot, and I agree it is a real non-manipulated photo.

Originally posted by porschedrifter
Yeah it's not a water spout...

I took a pic like that just the other day, with the double bolt of lightning...
It's really a single bolt, but because it was freehand and a slow shutter speed, that's what you get

[edit on 26-5-2010 by porschedrifter]

Only your picture is as blurry as hell which only demonstrates how blurry the OP photo would have to be, to be caused by the shutter. Your picture demonstrates perfectly infact why the OP picture is not caused by the same effect as yours.

There's no texture or "glow" between your lightnings . .



[edit on 26-5-2010 by JustAThought]

Originally posted by Tunatarian
From a boat you say?

Looks more like camera shake to me. It would take a pretty fast shutter speed to get a lightning photo without the blur.......in low light, from a boat, next to impossible.

Nice photo non-the-less!

[edit on 5/25/2010 by Tunatarian]

I've done it from my cell phone while in Destin, Fl about 3 years ago, no blur, turned out fine. Everyone knows how crappy cell phone cameras are, not next to impossible just have patience, you can initiate the capture, then finish it once you see the lightning strike, hard to capture a good one; I've also captured a few nice strikes on my camera. Have you ever tried this or are you just typing that because the lighting strike is so fast? I don't see how you can assume it's next to impossible if you have actually tried it, maybe your camera sucks.

Oh and the rest of his picture isn't blurred, so camera shake is highly unlikely.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by milkmustache]

For those of you saying a waterspout is not a tornado, I beg to differ:

"What is a waterspout? A waterspout is a tornado over water -- usually meaning non-supercell tornadoes over water. Waterspouts are common along the southeast U.S. coast -- especially off southern Florida and the Keys -- and can happen over seas, bays and lakes worldwide. Although waterspouts are always tornadoes by definition; they don't officially count in tornado records unless they hit land. They are smaller and weaker than the most intense Great Plains tornadoes, but still can be quite dangerous. Waterspouts can overturn boats, damage larger ships, do significant damage when hitting land, and kill people. The National Weather Service will often issue special marine warnings when waterspouts are likely or have been sighted over coastal waters, or tornado warnings when waterspouts can move onshore."

Source: www.spc.noaa.gov...

They may not count as tornadoes, but are tornadoes by definition. Meaning they are tornadoes; they are tornadoes over water. So if a tornado hits land, and then goes over water, it is still a tornado, even though it becomes a waterspout. Conversely waterspouts can become tornadoes by hitting land. They are the same weather phenomenon.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by wmd_2008

Originally posted by earth2
Friend of mine on facebook took these pics the other day, unbelievable is what I say.

His caption reads,

"Lightning inside a waterspout. Shot from the back of Kenny J, a sport fisher while on the way out to the reef to fish for snapper. Little Torch Key, mm 28 Florida Keys. It was noisy for a little while. The lightning was about a mile from the boat."

Is this what it is, Lightning in a Waterspout?


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/21c1c2c07e6f1bc8.jpg[/atsimg]
Copyrighted Photo by and Courtesy of Waddy Thompson

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/fa75740143b9dc53.jpg[/atsimg]
Copyrighted Photo by and Courtesy of Waddy Thompson



[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

If you look at the picture its NOT a waterspout its inland and not on the water.



You can see it doesnt reach the water surface get your friend to post the exif data for the picture it tells the shutter speed etc.



[edit on 26-5-2010 by wmd_2008]

What if there is water on the other side of the tree line? Maybe a bay or maybe the ocean, no way to tell from looking at the picture, that could be just a piece of land jetting out or something.

I'm surprised at the "it's photoshopped" comments. The OP is just trying to show some cool pics his friend took. And your trying to spin it as a hoax? Sometimes skepticism can go overboard.

Waterspouts are essentially tornadoes over water. Lightening occurs in tornadoes. Water conducts electricity so why would it not be possible for a lightening bolt to strike inside a waterspout?

Awesome pic OP. Nature never ceases to amaze me!

That doesn't look like a waterspout or it's host cloud to me, the bolt of lightening is beyond the nearest part of land so it could be on the other side above water, It looks like a bolt passing through heavy humidity like low clouds ect and both acoustic and temperature shock to the surrounding moisture.

Since lightening is extremely bright and fast it's usually quite clear in any picture while the other parts of the picture should display quite a bit more blurring if it was camera shake.

Originally posted by Tunatarian
From a boat you say?

Looks more like camera shake to me. It would take a pretty fast shutter speed to get a lightning photo without the blur.......in low light, from a boat, next to impossible.

Nice photo non-the-less!

[edit on 5/25/2010 by Tunatarian]

I take pics all the time in very low light..sometimes in the middle of night...it's called bulb setting..you should try it sometime! Not saying that this is real or fake just saying I have captured lightening many times...

Looks like the lightning was wearing a condom to keep from having little lightning babies. Mystery explained!

think the air was very moist and reflecting the plasma of the lichtning

reply to post by milkmustache


If you would have bothered to read my second reply, you would have seen that I explained, a tad better, my position on this photo.

And yes....I have tried this and stand firm that this is a result of camera shake/over saturation as a result of the low light conditions and the fact that it was taken from a BOAT!

As another member has stated, the photographer did a great job to get the image as clear as he did, considering it was taken from a boat. As the same member claims to be a professional photographer, it seems logical to consider his/her reply over mine.........or did you not bother reading that reply either.

I especially enjoyed your comment "maybe your camera sucks," as it gave me a slight chuckle. Thanks for that, if nothing else.

[edit on 5/26/2010 by Tunatarian]

Originally posted by JustAThought

Originally posted by porschedrifter
Yeah it's not a water spout...

I took a pic like that just the other day, with the double bolt of lightning...
It's really a single bolt, but because it was freehand and a slow shutter speed, that's what you get

[edit on 26-5-2010 by porschedrifter]

Only your picture is as blurry as hell which only demonstrates how blurry the OP photo would have to be, to be caused by the shutter. Your picture demonstrates perfectly infact why the OP picture is not caused by the same effect as yours.

There's no texture or "glow" between your lightnings . .

The lack of glow between lightning strikes isn't what concerns me as much. The reason I agree it looks like a different effec than the OP photo, is we see the double lighting image and a double ground image, so they match up. In the OP photo, we see a single clear lightning image, then one that MIGHT be a blurred lightning image, but no corresponding blur on the ground. So if it's lightning blur, how come there's no blur on the ground. The OP photo is a hard photo to figure out.

We can't be sure that this picture is not one of a water spout. We have no idea if there is water behind that tree line. The pole is not necessarily behind the lightning blot because the extreme light from the lightning strike could just make the pole appear as if it is behind the lightning bolt by washing out the other light. So, just because the alleged water spout is behind the tree line, doesn't mean that it isn't over water.

Also, the boat. You can't say that the boat would be moving. There are too many variables to consider, such as the weight and displacement of the boat. If both of these values are great enough, then the boat wouldn't be moving enough in those seas to affect the shot.

With that being said, I believe this to be a just an incredible lightning bolt though it very well could be one inside a water spout. If your going to try and debunk this photo, at least use valid and logical reasons.

In sum, you can't say that this alleged water spout is not over water, there is simply no evidence to support such a claim, regardless of how our eyes perceive it. Also, we can't say for sure whether a boat would be a sturdy platform from such a shot.

--airspoon

All this looks like is a picture of lightning. The blur around the bolt isn't a waterspout but just blur from the lightning itself. If he is a professional photographer why does he not have a good quality camera?

ALSO even if it is lightning inside a waterspout...so what? Nothing really spectacular going on if so.

[edit on 5/26/2010 by mnmcandiez]

Let's just call it a cool picture.

I seen some great waterspouts over Lake Erie throughout the years but I've never had a camera at the ready to capture one.

Originally posted by jibeho
Let's just call it a cool picture.

I seen some great waterspouts over Lake Erie throughout the years but I've never had a camera at the ready to capture one.

I have to agree with that, and camera shake is just not an answer. Besides, the "Waterspout" has a reflective surface all down the right side, so is being highlighted by something. Dirty water in a waterspout, like you might expect at near land would also be more conductive to electricity than clean water, so there is nothing to say that the picture is not as actually depicted, but is still open to some alternative natural interpretation, at the same time.

Originally posted by Tunatarian
reply to post by milkmustache

 

As another member has stated, the photographer did a great job to get the image as clear as he did, considering it was taken from a boat. As the same member claims to be a professional photographer, it seems logical to consider his/her reply over mine.........or did you not bother reading that reply either.

[edit on 5/26/2010 by Tunatarian]

I can assure you that guy is not a pro photographer. He probably wishes he was. I'm not either, but i've been in photography school and dropped out after a year . . And i promise you ANYONE who knows just BASIC shutter techniques can see that this is not the case.

If it was a shutter issue, the width of the lightning as a whole tells just how blurry each and every single tree on the picture should be. You would hardly be able to make anything out. . .

Hi all. I am new here, and the photograph in question is one that I shot last summer in the Florida Keys. If anyone wants to "Goog" the location, the Lat Lon is;
24 40 05 N 81 22 37 W The boat was located in the bay, about 1000 ft from the western group of houses, and about 3/4 to the end of the houses from the highway.

The boat is a 38 ft sport fisher, with tuna tower, 750 gallons of fuel, and 2- 485 hp Detroit diesels, about 1,500 lb each for ballast. The water was relatively calm, with very light chop (re the post about no reflection in the water, the waves and ripple action was breaking it up. In the original image, you can see the brighter area in the water.)

The equipment used is a Fuji S3 Pro, 12.3 Mp camera with Nikon 18-70mm f3.5 G ED lens, no filter. Shutter 1/8 sec, iso 800, f6.7, zoom @ 38mm (with APC crop sensor.)

I don't know yet how to post a photograph here, or I would post 100% crops of the original showing the two areas in question, the power pole, which is a big one, about 60 or 70 ft tall, and the other smaller bolt of lightning in the upper right corner of the shot. The land mass that the lightning is over is only about 50 meters wide, crossing a 3/4 mile wide bay.
The original photo looks pretty much like the one posted, except some slight adjustments using iPhoto 08 V7.1.5, and not capable of any refined "photoshopping." I have PS3 installed, but haven't learned to use it yet.
I will try to post the photos this way.
Here are url's for the photos cropped 100% and straight from the camera not edited, for the photo experts to dissect.

www.dpchallenge.com..." target='_blank' class='tabOff'/>
Ground contact


Upper right corner

Click on "Photo Page" button at the left of the page at the link to see the image full size.

I will try to answer any other questions any of you may have about the images.

The photo is currently hanging on a wall in some NOAA building somewhere, via their "Customer Appreciation thing" or some such program.





[edit on 27-5-2010 by MelonMusketeer]

Additional information;
The bay opens to the ocean, so the water is salt water, a very electrically conductive medium. We use two metal plates and a barrel of salt water to test bit generators. You can vary the load by moving the plates in or out of the water.
Having looked again at the actual contact area, I notice that the bolt does not go to the water in front of the tree line. The power lines are in the water between the boat and the highway. Some of the bright blur is across the power pole. That leads me to also believe that this was camera motion which caused the "wide" look. The camera may have been moving as the bolt was disintegrating, causing the horizontal lines in the blurred section. It makes me wonder about the right edge of the blur being bright though, which makes me feel that it might be the plasma effect, expanding and heating the air and water around the bolt to make it look like a tube. It was probably light rain where the bolt hit. It was very high energy lightning, with many of the strikes being multiple strokes. That is why I was shooting at 1/8 sec, and triggering the shutter when I saw light. I captured 3 strokes in about 20 shots, this being the only one with the ground sharp.
Then again, maybe it actually was a waterspout ? A waterspout would be lifting salt water spray into the vortex, creating a very conductive path for a bolt to follow.
The air temperature was at least 85 F and humidity at 90% or higher if it matters.

[edit on 27-5-2010 by MelonMusketeer]

[edit on 27-5-2010 by MelonMusketeer]

reply to post by MelonMusketeer

Well, that pretty much wraps it up, I'd say. Welcome to ATS, MelonMusketeer. Hope you'll stick around. It can be fun.