Best Weather Photos of 2008

These 27 photos submitted by News 5 viewers to the weather gallery of wkrg.com were selected for variety and for how pretty or unique they are. Many others came close.

Half the trick of a good weather picture is simply watching the sky and being at the right place at the right time but here's the other half which involves art and basic setup. It doesn't take an expensive camera but it usually involves something better than a cell phone camera.

If you haven't used your camera in a while you might pick it up to catch that fleeting waterspout only to be disappointed to find that the batteries are dead. Make sure the batteries have a good charge.

Look at your lens and see if it is smudged with grease or specks. If smudged wipe it gently with a clean, dry, lint-free cloth. If dusty then blow clean compressed air over it first.

Whatever you are trying to shoot needs to have enough light on it. If it is a dark scene then you'll need to use a tripod or set the camera on something steady. Nighttime shooting and lightning photography definitely require a tripod. In these cases you should use the timer setting to trigger the shutter so that you don't shake the camera when pressing the shutter button.

Shooting through windows when it is dark is difficult because the camera flash causes a bright glare on the glass. Even without the flash you almost always end up with unintended reflections.

A steady hand is needed for zooming in on distant objects. The more you zoom, the more likely it is that your shot will be blurred. If it is halfway dark or dark then you'll benefit from a tripod. Using a flash at night for something that is much more than 25 feet away from you doesn't help unless you are using a tripod and a very slow shutter speed.

Framing is the key to a good shot once everything else is set. You don't want things in the shot that distract from the actual image. As you compose your shot look at the corners and the sides and the top and bottom of the viewfinder to make sure that what you see is what you want. Look through the images in our gallery to see what grabs your eye as great pictures and learn from those.

Read the owners manual of your camera for good tips on how to get the best possible picture from your camera. Many cameras default to auto focus and if you are shooting something far away like a landscape or cloud then the camera will often have a hard time finding something to focus on. In these cases you should use the manual or scene settings to force it to focus on "infinity" or distant objects.

Never risk your life to take a picture! This sounds like common sense but too often people stand in dangerous spots or lean over railings. When you are concentrating on what's in front of your camera you sometimes miss hazards around you or approaching you. One of the worst things people do is take a picture while driving a vehicle. Have a passenger take the shot or pull out of traffic safely to park and take the picture. Realize that lightning and storm photography hold danger if you are outside.

Check out the photo gallery for ideas and check the Weather Education section for other interesting weather pictures.