Lightning pt.II

So there I was sitting at home figuring out what to do when suddenly I saw flashes of light outside of my window. Grabbed my tripod which was leaning against the wall and threw the camera in bulb mode. Went crazy with the shutter and I managed to get some pretty decent shots without waiting for too long.

Assembling the pictures were a pain as it wasn't the typical 'round 'em up and shove them into photoshop' technique. I wanted something that was both panoramic but also showed that it was composed of several different photos. An hour or so later I managed to get the pseudo panoramic shot I wanted. It wasn't perfect as you can't really see all 7 images which made up the picture but its as close as it gets with my current set of skills. :)

Lightning-Pano
Not too bad right?

Broga Hills

I've always wanted to capture the sunrise on top of a hill with the mist rolling down the valley and the sun just peaking from the clouds. So I tagged along a bunch of friends who wanted to climb Broga on the first day of Hari Raya.

The early bird catches the worm or so they say. Unfortunately they didn't say how difficult it is to get up early. Since the hills were quite far from my place, I had to get up at 3 in the morning. I'd bet not even the most industrious worm was wriggling about in the soil. Anyway, with bleary eyes and a half-awake conscious, I roused myself from slumber and got going.

The drive there was about an hour or so while the climbing took another 45 minutes. Hiking is easy; only if its with visible light. Trying to climb a 45 degree slope with a small torch whilst lugging a tripod and your dslr, is no small feat. But its probably isn't so bad if you compare it to caving because at least you can't bump your head on the ceiling as you're out in the open.

So we reached the first peak after 45 minutes of hiking and there was a sense of accomplishment being able to reach there as I was the most 'unfit' person of the group. I could have yelled 'I'm the king of the world' if it was not for the crowd that had already gathered before we reached. Until it started to rain.

Ever packed something in your bag in case there was an emergency like extra batteries or an extra shirt? You know the odds of using it are a million to one but you just stow it away just for fun even though it adds extra weight to your bag.

So yeah, out came the umbrella and with the rain, went my morale. Now I was cold, wet and miserable. Nobody gets up in the wee hours of the morning to get stuck in the rain several hundred metres above sea level. And if I got lucky, I'd be taken out of my misery with a lightning bolt from above.

Photobucket

Fortunately the rain did let up but because of the rain, we couldn't see the sun which was obscured by the clouds. Damn. That earthworm must be laughing to itself in its tunnel. But wanting to make the best of things, I fished out the camera and made some exposures. Although they aren't much but it beats not having anything to show after coming all this way.