Lightning Inside of a WaterSpout..Unbelievable Picture

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]

looks liek pohotoshop
second line

No this is real, this guy is a professional photographer.

He is a facebook friend of mine and he posted them on face book today.

Totally cool.

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]

The first photo was cropped from the second photo...it's not photoshop.

[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

reply to post by earth2


Cool Pic. I have seen waterspouts but nothing quite like this. Wonder why the lightning was contained to the waterspout? Maybe this picture will lead science to learn a bit about both.

From what I can see that's what it looks like. People photograph lightning all the time and it looks plenty clear, just like this guys pic. That's awesome! Probably the only time this has ever been photographed!


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Here is the facebook page where he posted it..

www.facebook.com...#!/LiveOnABoat?v=photos

[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

Looks real to me as no other blur is visible in the pic as far as i can see.
And water im sure would conduct electricity better than air.

Wow, cool pic.
If it really isn't photoshop, that is definately being in the right place at the right time--added to snapping the pic at the perfect time.
Nice.

Thanks for sharing.

Is there water behind the treeline? And did he actually see the water spout and was taking a picture of that when he happened to catch the lightning strike?

Great pic, it might be my new screen background

I haven't had a chance to chat with him, like I said he just posted it on facebook yesterday, but this guy carries a super nice Camera EVERYWHERE he goes. This is what he does.

How he got this pic, I have no idea but I do know its real just because of the type of guy he is.

Both pics are the same pic, he just cropped and zoomed.

[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

reply to post by InvisibleObserver


I just don't know, I will message him tonight and see what he says.

Personally i think it is photoshopped. Just my opinion but the water spout isnt over the water and there is no change to the water at all in the pic. It looks like a pic of a lightning bolt over land that was edited to make it look like it was contained inside a waterspout. I did some reading about water spouts and they are very different from tornadoes. Lightning does occur inside a tornado because it is being made from a thunderstorn supercell but waterspouts are much different in composition and structure from a tornadoe. They form in completely different ways. So it is pretty unlikely that a lightning bolt would form inside one and follow the shape of the water spout almost perfectly. Its a bit too convenient for me. Mostly because the so called water spout isnt on the water. Now if this was a tornado that would be a bit different. I would be curious if there are any meteorologists or if anyone knows a meteorologist that could verify if this is even possible. I will keep digging to see if i can find any other info. I really think this is bogus and a hoax.


edited to add the following: There is a very visible pole of somekind in the background behind the so called funnel of the waterspout. Also part of a tree is visible behind the cloud formation so i again claim fake because this is obviously over land. water spouts do not form over land. There would be visible signs of the water spout from an earlier stage in its cycle of the ocean surface being swirled around and water being kicked up and waves formed. I am linking thks article i found as well as a snippet from the article.

Even though it might be invisible, a vortex is reaching the ocean surface from the cloud. When the wind speeds reach around 40 mph, the wind begins to kick up spray in a circular pattern — the spray vortex. At this time you might see the funnel pointing down from the cloud toward the ring.

The fourth, or mature, stage is when the funnel reaches all the way from the cloud to the ocean. You can usually see through the funnel - it's really a thin cloud of tiny water droplets.

During this stage, small waves are being kicked up and the spout leaves a bubbly wake behind as it moves across the ocean. These tiny bubbles could be carbon dioxide and other gases that are dissolved in the water that are caused to effervesce by the low air pressure in the spout's center - like a bottle of soda that's just opened.

waterspouts

[edit on 25-5-2010 by fizzy1]

[edit on 25-5-2010 by fizzy1]

reply to post by fizzy1


Well for the Record, where he took the pics is full of islands, this could very easily be in the water on the other side of the island or peninsula.

Anyway, I just messaged him a few minutes ago, we'll see what he has to say.

[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

Ok, here is his repsonse when I asked him how he got the picture...

"I couldn't see the waterspout until I looked at the photo. It was after dark, and the sky was dark except for the lightning. I shot about 25 shots at iso 800, f6.5 and 1/8 sec, triggering the shutter when I saw light. The lightning was very strong and was making multiple hits with each bolt, so I captured a few of them. In this photo, taken 11 minutes earlier, you can see the waterspout forming near the top of the image."

Second message: "There was so much lightning in that area that I figured there may be a tornado sort of thing going on, as tornadoes are often accompanied by very frequent lightning bolts."

Awesome Lucky Pic, I say!

[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

No better conductor for electricity than water, well there is, but nothing to say that lightning could not be channeled down a waterspout. Interesting pic. I know that if lightning hits an open part of a culvert it will follow it, and everything will be blown away, even if the culvert is mostly underground.

Originally posted by earth2
reply to post by fizzy1

 

Well for the Record, where he took the pics is full of islands, this could very easily be in the water on the other side of the island or peninsula.

Anyway, I just messaged him a few minutes ago, we'll see what he has to say.

[edit on 25-5-2010 by earth2]

yes but it is unlikely because of what is very visible behind the spout. It doesnt look like something is off in the distance behind the funnel on say another island or landmass. It looks as if its on the same mass of land. Again we see no clear sign of spray at or near the end of the funnel being kicked up from any water. This is mostly why i am calling fake. Kinda hard to prove since i am not a scientific expert on photography. Just looks and has a feel of being photoshopped. ts a kewl pic nonetheless but thats not why it was posted.

This is simply not a waterspout in my opinion. I don't think your buddy has photoshopped this and is putting you on. It's as I said earlier, and is the simplest explanation for the image. At low light, the apperature(f stop) or the size of the hole that allows light to enter the camera must be increased for a decent exposure....or the shutter speed needs to be slowed down to allow more time for more light to enter the camera. At the neccessary settings to shoot at night, photos are easily blurred. This is why they are either taken from a tripod or with a flash. This photo involved neither. At this distance, you wouldn't notice a blurr on the horizon as you would on a bright light.....Have you ever tried to photo fireworks.......at night?

Now consider that it was taken from a BOAT.....AT NIGHT.......Not to mention that it's not even touching the water. It is behind the trees....Yes....but is in front of the pole holding the power line.

And to top it all off........your friend said he never actually saw the waterspout.

I still think it's a really cool photo, but not of a waterspout!

[edit on 5/25/2010 by Tunatarian]