{ina coolbrith} big stoppa' party

Thursday evening, at the end of the Sharks' game {play-offs game 1}, the sky began to light up with brilliant flashes and thunder rattled our windows. But the night before that the storm was only nearing the peak. The clouds were big and puffy against a cornflower blue sky. Showers throughout the day held off towards sunset. Rapid winds swept the clouds in fast forward across the sky. Perfect conditions, one might say, for the Big Stopper.

And what's the Big Stopper?? Mini photo lesson coming at ya... Photography is all about light. As you adjust the amount of light that enters the camera - this is done in "stops". Stop down one stop and you've just cut the amount of light coming in by 1/2. The Big Stopper is a almost completely black piece of glass that, when placed in front of your lens, will 1/2 the light coming into the camera 10 times! That's a tenth of a percent of the light - craziness! But that allows you to do some cool things like stretch out the shutter speed like Lukas did in the photo above. Perfect for late afternoon, windswept cloudy days.