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ElectriCity
ElectriCity
Brent_S


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Best of 2008 (Advanced Editing VII*)
Camera: Canon EOS-30D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L IS USM
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Date: Jun 29, 2008
Aperture: f6.3
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1.3sec
Galleries: Cityscape, Architecture
Date Uploaded: Jan 11, 2009

 I was hesitant posting this image so soon after having another image taken from the same vantage point do well in a Free Study. Still, I have had this one in my mind for six months now as one of the more stunning (pardon the pun) images I captured in 2008. Lightning is quite rare for Seattle and I was excited to get this my first time attempting to capture it. Ah well, I'll find out what the voters think soon enough. Part of me wants it to do well and part of me wants it to do not quite well enough to end up on my home page where I would rather show diversity with every shot being completely different.

Well thanks all for your votes and especially the great comments. I guess I can learn to deal with two shots from the same vantage point on my front page :-)

Statistics
Place: 13 out of 531
Avg (all users): 6.9583
Avg (commenters): 7.9565
Avg (participants): 6.9891
Avg (non-participants): 6.8571
Views since voting: 3624
Views during voting: 440
Votes: 240
Comments: 38
Favorites: 16 (view)

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AuthorThread
 01/25/2010 01:04:20 PM
This is really awesome! great job!! This is a great place for taking pictures of seattle! (i think i have a couple shots in my port.) if i had voted on this one, i would have given it a 10!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/15/2009 06:24:11 PM
pretty rockin' shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/27/2009 01:58:08 AM
Flat out amazing! -- if only a bolt were striking the needle... :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2009 10:40:19 AM
A ten score from me, Congratulations on top 20.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 05:22:42 PM
I gave this an 8. Amazing capture and I remember pondering this for a while and wishing that it had a whisker nudge up on the right or a perspective correction to straighten. That and I 'experimented' holding my hand up to remove the red bottom right (personal preference and all) - but, obviously, that was your call and either way, still an excellent capture.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:47:30 PM
this is so special - the light is gorgeous! You are so lucky to live in such a beautiful city. Now you need to go shoot Mt. Ranier!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 10:21:45 AM
I was hoping this was yours, Brent. Congrats on placing so highly in a Best of challenge! Good for you!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 03:32:09 AM
DUDE!! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 01:43:49 AM
Congrats on top 20 Brent - I knew this would do well, and actually thought it would be in the top 10! Those Seattle shots are beautiful and you needn't feel embarrassed about having 3 on your front page as they're different enough from each other.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 01:08:07 AM
Haha! I know JUST how you feel with 3 Seattle skyline shots on your front page; I was that way with Cape Cod sunsets for a while, and it bugged me.

This image was one of my high scores given; I'm glad it did well, and I'm frankly surprised it didn't crack top 10.

Regarding your comments in the score thread on losing points at rollover, that happens to me a lot. I think I lose more often than I gain, actually :-(
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:27:41 AM
what an image! congrats on top 20, awesome
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:05:49 AM
Great job Brent. I suspected this was your entry, although you didn't have to be a genius to figure that out!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/22/2009 11:05:27 PM
waaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! thats the freakiest coolest cityscape ive seen in quite a while
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 09:12:45 PM
This has a Sci-Fi feel to it! It's remarkable! Top notch!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 07:54:34 PM
fabulous night image and sky!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 07:28:15 PM
awesome shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 03:24:15 PM
The City slept peacefully for most of that night, before the lightning came. It was like any other storm, in the beginning. The clouds rolling in off the waters, the atmospheric changes that signaled, deep in the human conciousness, that there would probably be rain. Not that the people in this city were strangers to rain by any means, but there was something different about it that night.

The first flashes of electricity arched through the skies about 2am, in the darkest of the night, when the city was finally settling down and most were at home, snug in their beds, dreaming of new days and the morning light, and the hopes and fears and joys and sadnesses that occupy all of our minds. It arched through the skies, in tiny bursts at first. Then larger and larger, with thunder building to deeper and deeper crescendos, and then it began to come out of the clouds, and it touched down on all the lighting rods on every building. Then, without explanation, it began to bypass such flimsy safety devices and began hitting the walls and windows and the very ground itself. Wherever it touched, little pulses of light exploded outward, and windows shattered and concrete burst outward in a shower of deadly shrapnel, and the very air seemed to burn.

For two full hours the lightning came down, and when it ended, the clouds remained, and the rain poured down, and the silence... the silence was deafening.

And in every little pocket of destruction, the thousands upon thousands that littered the now devastated city, there was movement. An unfurling of mass and ichor and limbs and an utterly alien life, and in every one, like a switch being flicked on somewhere, blinked two glowing points of an unearthly red glow to life.

It wasn't long, after that, that the screams began, and the city was torn apart.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 10:12:21 AM
Great capture. The blues are really nice and I like the splash of red in the lower right.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2009 10:17:56 PM
WOW Such a dramatic capture! Top marks!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2009 09:40:30 PM
The last FS was won with this same perspective, and I'm assuming this is the same photographer... but this is much better than that one, this has got to be a ribbon winner. Amazing shot, this really belongs on the cover of a local magazine, absolutely beautiful!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2009 09:01:51 AM
Great capture! Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2009 05:10:10 PM
Wow! Great!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2009 04:33:00 PM
Very cool, very nice!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2009 07:57:48 AM
Picture Postcard right there, well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2009 01:24:47 PM
great shot and awesome title!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2009 01:07:39 PM
stunning cityscape - the colors, the excitement created by the lighting
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2009 07:59:49 AM
wow, that's a storm! would make a great postcard or print
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 06:14:51 PM
Stunning and beautiful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 05:19:15 PM
One of my 10 score
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 04:00:44 PM
WOW, exact replica of the recent ribbon winner shot, except with a twist in the weather. Wonderful capture, Good Luck.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 11:38:45 AM
nice capture
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 02:06:37 PM
Electrifying to say the least. Great job with the exposure. Good luck with this one :)
(no vote)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 01:28:55 PM
We never have lightning in Seattle. What's up with this? Seriously, terrific photo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 11:50:39 AM
Really beautiful, those blue tones are great.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 10:29:38 AM
I know how hard these lightning shots can be - well done on getting the exposure on all the elements in this image :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 01:37:04 AM
Brent? Stunning.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 01:12:59 AM
Holy cow, that picture coming up was a shocker (sorry about the pun). Gorgeous colors and you controlled the composition of the lightning so nicely =P Not going to lie, I'm a sucker for nice storm pics. I can't decide whether or not I like the red light in the corner. On one hand, when I cover it up, the picture doesn't have as much umph, but on the other hand, my eyes are uncontrollably drawn away from the main subjects.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 12:20:18 AM
WOW - what a capture. Is it me, or are the buildings slightly leaning right?
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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