# Cloud bounce beamshots!!



## kramer5150 (Jan 2, 2010)

Post em' fellas!!


Primary focus for this thread was originally for HIDs and spotlights. But heck if you have a hand held or an EDC that cooks clouds then by all means... post those pics too!!


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## Juggernaut (Jan 2, 2010)

That’s funny I was just doing that earlier tonight with my 3D RayOvac sleeper and Tiablo A9 S. Curse not having a good enough camera:scowl:!


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## Flashanator (Jan 2, 2010)

Kneel before Zod Baby!!







Its an old one, my vt120.


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## ez78 (Jan 2, 2010)

A chinese Maxabeam clone called Supernova. (75W short arc Xenon)





LarryK14 type 600W halogen spotlight





Not a very good photo of the 400W HID vaporising the clouds. (Or actually making sure they stay in vapor form.)


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## Max_Power (Jan 2, 2010)

I like the shadow of the power line tower projected onto the clouds - nice!


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## Patriot (Jan 2, 2010)

ez78 said:


>




That's one of the neatest beamshots I've ever seen!!! oo:


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## Juggernaut (Jan 2, 2010)

Yah, my favorite, cloud shoots are the ones with shadows in them. If I can’t quite tell if I’m hitting the clouds I’ll aim my light past the top of a tree to see if I can make a shadow, if so, then I’m hitting the clouds:thumbsup:.


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## Dances with Flashlight (Jan 2, 2010)

NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL A GREAT THREAD!

MORE PICS!


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## ronb (Jan 2, 2010)

ez78 said:


> A chinese Maxabeam clone called Supernova. (75W short arc Xenon)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You have a link for one of those Supernova ?


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## ez78 (Jan 2, 2010)

ronb said:


> You have a link for one of those Supernova ?




This is the manufacturer's page.

http://www.sh-nicell.com/sdp/108710/4/pd-1081394/255301-542285.html

I think someone managed to order one by sending email to them. I think price was 700-800 usd. I bought mine used from the CPF market place.


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## fyrstormer (Jan 2, 2010)

ez78 said:


> LarryK14 type 600W halogen spotlight


Do you have a high-resolution version of this image? That would make a good desktop wallpaper for my computer.


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 2, 2010)

ez78, that is definitely one of the coolest beamshots I have seen. Seeing the shadow of that power line on the clouds is smokin', thanks!


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## Stillphoto (Jan 2, 2010)

The next time I see that someone has fired up one of those huge searchlights that are visible for 30+ miles (old military carbon arcs that get rented now and then), I'll try to grab a shot of the light hitting a cloud and making a secondary beam from the bounce.


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## Beamhead (Jan 2, 2010)

ez78 said:


>


 
Every time I look at this I hear "freeze Megatron"


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## daytec (Jan 2, 2010)

they just had a power surge in finland, cool shot.......marty


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## Echo63 (Jan 3, 2010)

ez78 said:


> LarryK14 type 600W halogen spotlight



Awesome pic
Can we please please please get a high res one of this, it would make an awesome desktop


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## Illum (Jan 3, 2010)

:twothumbs:


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## TorchBoy (Jan 3, 2010)

Agreed - the power pylon shot is great.


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## darkzero (Jan 3, 2010)

Cool!


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## ez78 (Jan 3, 2010)

Glad you guys liked the shots.

Here is the power pylon shot from two angles in high resolution:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc244/ezax0/Pylon_LK14_1.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc244/ezax0/Pylon_LK14_2.jpg


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## ANDREAS FERRARI (Jan 3, 2010)

Thanks ez78-I've made the second one my desktop background-:twothumbs:twothumbs:twothumbs


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## kramer5150 (Jan 3, 2010)

Wow some great shots!!

thanks


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## XeRay (Jan 3, 2010)

Patriot said:


> That's one of the neatest beamshots I've ever seen!!! oo:


 
Ham operators on the 2 meter band do Moon bounce. I'll Really be impressed when one of you guys do that to the moon (the dark side) with a light. 
BVH should have tried that before he sold off his really "Big Gun". :twothumbs


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## Dances with Flashlight (Jan 3, 2010)

These would be great CPF logos.


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 3, 2010)

Hopefully BVH will show up and make some contributions to this thread. The Carbon Arc might be incapable of cloud bounces because it probably caused whatever it was pointed at to disintegrate or start on fire!


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## ronb (Jan 3, 2010)

ez78 said:


> This is the manufacturer's page.
> 
> http://www.sh-nicell.com/sdp/108710/4/pd-1081394/255301-542285.html
> 
> I think someone managed to order one by sending email to them. I think price was 700-800 usd. I bought mine used from the CPF market place.


USD 650.00 200.00 USD shipping ouch


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## BVH (Jan 4, 2010)

I "mooned" quite a few clouds in my 60" days! Literally, the ultra-round and sharply defined spot looked like the moon when shone on clouds. Including the color. Even though the color temp of the arc was somewhere around 5500 to 6000, the spot was a very yellow/white and actually looked like the moon. Should have snapped some shots but didn't.

Is the tower in the shot painted/colored blue? The beam color looks right for the LarryK14 but its color on the tower itself looks way blue? I've never seen my beam from a distance. I'm surprised how focused it looks given it massive wall of floody light when standing behind it.


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## ez78 (Jan 4, 2010)

Yes, it's a blue painted pylon. Here is a photo of a same type power pylon. They are pretty tall too. 

http://www.surgeon.fi/images/rajasaari_1.JPG

Clouds were very low when I took those shots. Maybe 100-200 meters.


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## Ra (Jan 4, 2010)

Whow... Those are some super nice pictures EZ !!!
Indeed desktop material !!

Regards,

Ra.


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## toby_pra (Jan 4, 2010)

Amazing shots...


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 4, 2010)

Ra said:


> Whow... Those are some super nice pictures EZ !!!
> Indeed desktop material !!
> 
> Regards,
> ...


 
Yes, I put one of the tower shots on my desktop yesterday. Thanks again!


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## Patriot (Jan 4, 2010)

Beamhead said:


> Every time I look at this I hear "freeze Megatron"




Haha!! That's good Beamhead. :thumbsup:


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## danjoo (Jan 4, 2010)

Really Nice shoots,thanx for the high res.


daniel


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## get-lit (Jan 6, 2010)

Saved!


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## kramer5150 (Jan 6, 2010)

ez78 said:


> Yes, it's a blue painted pylon. Here is a photo of a same type power pylon. They are pretty tall too.
> 
> http://www.surgeon.fi/images/rajasaari_1.JPG
> 
> Clouds were very low when I took those shots. Maybe 100-200 meters.



Wow, those are some really low lying clouds. I don't even think clouds in my area get that low. It would be really neat to get some shots off the california coastline, where clouds can get really low in the winter months within ~50 meters some times.


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## DM51 (Jan 6, 2010)

That blue pylon cloud shot is just fantastic, ez! Superb!


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## ScottFHall (Jan 8, 2010)

Kramer5150 and Everyone: A new cold front rolled in tonight with potential to make snowflakes fall tomorrow--yes--central Florida! The clouds are heavy and low so I took the Sunforce 25,000,000 candlepower HID spotlight out. I have four ASA 1600 1/2 second 12 megapixel digital exposures here: three of them show the top of my eucalyptus tree casting a shadow right onto the cloud and the fourth is a shot of the beam just shredding the heck out of water vapor directly overhead.

Floating H20, go ahead: make my day!


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## TorchBoy (Jan 9, 2010)

That's a nice beam and shadow on the cloud, ScottFHall. Would you mind taking another pic at ISO100 for low noise?


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## Echo63 (Jan 9, 2010)

Thanks ez78
that is my desktop now 


you know your a flashaholic when - you have a desktop on your computer, of a beamshot from someone on the otherside of the world


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## ez78 (Jan 9, 2010)

ScottFHall, nice beams.:thumbsup: Maybe a bit more exposure time would have revealed the water vapor shredding action even better.


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## Patriot (Jan 9, 2010)

Nice shots ScottFHall. If the camera is on a tripod and the light is also still, it's preferable to shoot at a low ISO/ASA to reduce noise/graining and longer shutter speed.


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## ScottFHall (Jan 9, 2010)

Right, right, sorry about the grain in my photos. I'm afraid my digital camera has limited exposure control--the longest shutter speed available is 1/2 second and then my options are to set ASA from 100 to 1600. I tried 100 but it didn't provide enough exposure tim so I resorted to 1600 to maximize light absorption over the course of 1/2 second. Next time around, I will try some intermediate ASA numbers to reduce the grain some.

Thanks for the big-ups on these pics, though: it was really an amazing sight to see here in person.


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## ez78 (Jan 9, 2010)

Me and my 400W HID went for a walk tonight. Weather was so cold(-19C) that there were totally no clouds anywhere. Luckily I still found some smoke on the sky so I immediately unleashed some serious lumens on it. This is not really a cloud bounce but still something similar. The tower is 75 meters tall.


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## TorchBoy (Jan 9, 2010)

ScottFHall said:


> I'm afraid my digital camera has limited exposure control--the longest shutter speed available is 1/2 second


Does it have a star/night sky mode? Or if you've got the software you could merge a bunch of ISO 100 shots.


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## ScottFHall (Jan 10, 2010)

TorchBoy--ah, yes, yes. I stand corrected. I dug deeper into my digital and I did find a second set of menus hidden in there which allow me to choose some dark options: night shot, night portrait, candlelight, fireworks. Chances are one of those is going to be fine grained and allow for longer exposures--I will definitely try these settings out next time I take the Sunforce 25,000,000 cp spotlight out for cloud bounce shots.


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## TorchBoy (Jan 10, 2010)

Hey, that's a better range of choices than I'd hoped for. Sounds like you're going to have some fun testing them.


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## Stillphoto (Jan 10, 2010)

Night shot would be the most appropriate for this, but will not be fine grained. Make sure you use a tripod, as the exposure time will likely be a few seconds long.


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## ScottFHall (Jan 10, 2010)

Oh yeah, I'm already using a tripod in the current pics and the self-timer so that the camera settles down by the time the shooting starts.

Is it just me or does that big smokestack in Finland up above look like a filtered cigarette?


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## TorchBoy (Jan 10, 2010)

ScottFHall said:


> Is it just me or does that big smokestack in Finland up above look like a filtered cigarette?


Now that you mention it... yeah, I guess so. It's certainly got a number of the right characteristics.


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## liteitup (Jan 11, 2010)

ScottFHall said:


> Oh yeah, I'm already using a tripod in the current pics and the self-timer so that the camera settles down by the time the shooting starts.
> 
> Is it just me or does that big smokestack in Finland up above look like a filtered cigarette?


its even got a glowing red tip... ahahah


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## sqchram (Jan 11, 2010)

ez78 said:


> This is the manufacturer's page.
> 
> http://www.sh-nicell.com/sdp/108710/4/pd-1081394/255301-542285.html
> 
> I think someone managed to order one by sending email to them. I think price was 700-800 usd. I bought mine used from the CPF market place.


 
Hey, 50 piece minimum order - group buy anyone? heh.


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## Parker VH (Jan 11, 2010)

I thought I had heard previously that they would sell individual lights as a so called " sample". Correct me if I'm wrong on this.


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## Patriot (Jan 11, 2010)

ez78 said:


>






Waaay cool ez78! You've really got a collection of sweet pictures. A couple of my favorite beamshots ever.


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## Arnulf (Jan 12, 2010)

fyrstormer said:


> Do you have a high-resolution version of this image? That would make a good desktop wallpaper for my computer.



Is that a cloud or pollution...looks too low to be a cloud? really neat pic.


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## jcw122 (Jan 12, 2010)

I can hit some low clouds with my Stanley, I'm installing the 4300k bulb this weekend so I'll see if I can contribute to this


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## Patriot (Jan 13, 2010)

Arnulf said:


> Is that a cloud or pollution...looks too low to be a cloud?



I think it's a cloud. Did you see the first picture from the same post? The first is clearly a cloud and I don't believe they have a big pollution problem in Finland. 

It is a great picture though, isn't it!


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## ez78 (Jan 13, 2010)

It's just the low lying clouds on the coast of Helsinki. The pylon is almost standing in the sea actually. I don't think we have any pollution here, it's a small city with not much people and only couple of cars.


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## Arnulf (Jan 13, 2010)

Patriot said:


> I think it's a cloud. Did you see the first picture from the same post? The first is clearly a cloud and I don't believe they have a big pollution problem in Finland.
> 
> It is a great picture though, isn't it!



Those are some low hanging clouds...looks like they are not much higher than the tower.....I seen the smoke stack pic and I assumed it was a heavy industrial area....yeah....very cool picture.


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## Arnulf (Jan 13, 2010)

ez78 said:


> It's just the low lying clouds on the coast of Helsinki. The pylon is almost standing in the sea actually. I don't think we have any pollution here, it's a small city with not much people and only couple of cars.



Ok...just clouds that have rolled in off the ocean. 

We have a population of Finlanders here in Upper Michigan....nice folks.....some have intermarried with our Indians....we call them Findians. 

What is "LarryK14 type 600W halogen spotlight" ?


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## ez78 (Jan 14, 2010)

Arnulf said:


> We have a population of Finlanders here in Upper Michigan....nice folks.....some have intermarried with our Indians....we call them Findians.
> 
> What is "LarryK14 type 600W halogen spotlight" ?




Findians, cool.

I highly recommend the Larryk 600W spotlight modification. Here is the thread:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/111545


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## Arnulf (Jan 14, 2010)

ez78 said:


> Findians, cool.
> 
> I highly recommend the Larryk 600W spotlight modification. Here is the thread:
> 
> https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/111545



Awesome modification....what do you use to power your LarryK14?


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## vee73 (Jan 14, 2010)

Patriot said:


> That's one of the neatest beamshots I've ever seen!!! oo:


 
WoW
ez78. Really nice picture!


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## ez78 (Jan 16, 2010)

Arnulf said:


> Awesome modification....what do you use to power your LarryK14?



I have a 10Ah 30 volt battery setup in a backpack. Think of ghostbusters and you get the idea.


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## BVH (Jan 16, 2010)

EZ, have you ever checked running Voltage on your freshly charged pack? Is your 30V falling to 28V or less or is your pack higher to start with? I've hooked mine to my variable power supply and it will easily handle 30 Volts loaded. Makes quite a difference in brightness.


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## ez78 (Jan 16, 2010)

BVH said:


> EZ, have you ever checked running Voltage on your freshly charged pack? Is your 30V falling to 28V or less or is your pack higher to start with? I've hooked mine to my variable power supply and it will easily handle 30 Volts loaded. Makes quite a difference in brightness.



Well this one is easy to answer since I have a volt meter on the spotlight. It constantly shows the voltage of the battery pack. Right after charging the voltage peaks around 33 volts. Then when I switch it on the voltage drops to 29 volts and stays there for about 5 minutes and starts to slowly go down. I have a feeling it stays above 28 volts for about 10 minutes, although a have not timed it exactly.

It has already been over two years since I built my version of the LK14, here is an old picture of it showing also the volt meter:

http://img117.imageshack.us/i/img1262pf7.jpg/

It is still doing strong and I have couple of spare lamps waiting. Great fun!


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## BVH (Jan 16, 2010)

10 minutes sounds about right. My internal 4.5 AM Sub-C pack gives about 5 minutes of nice bright light and maybe 2 more of dimmer performance. IIRC, it gave about 1 minute of runtime between 30V and 31V.


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## Arnulf (Jan 16, 2010)

ez78 said:


> I have a 10Ah 30 volt battery setup in a backpack. Think of ghostbusters and you get the idea.



Who you gonna call...:thumbsup:


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## ez78 (Feb 16, 2010)

I found some more Larryk14 cloud bounces from my archives.


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## Jarski (Feb 16, 2010)

Very nice!

But is this thread only for HIDs? Because I got some nice cloud bounce (or more like fog) pics with LD20 and ROP


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## ez78 (Feb 16, 2010)

Jarski said:


> Very nice!
> 
> But is this thread only for HIDs? Because I got some nice cloud bounce (or more like fog) pics with LD20 and ROP



Hey, let's see them. I think anykind of bounces are welcome. The Larryk14 in my shots is a 600W halogen spot actually.


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## bobisculous (Feb 16, 2010)

Here is my contribution. I can sort of say I am in the clouds, as that was a massively foggy night a number years ago in the armpit of Texas. It was with a Thor 10X. 






The grid is on it as I threw the image through a free noise reduction program, and without paying for the program, you got the grid on it. 

-Cameron


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## kramer5150 (Feb 16, 2010)

Jarski said:


> Very nice!
> 
> But is this thread only for HIDs? Because I got some nice cloud bounce (or more like fog) pics with LD20 and ROP



Sounds good to me! Lets see em' 
Original post updated.


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## bobisculous (Feb 16, 2010)

ez78 said:


>



So I asked a good friend who is a photography extraordinaire to clean this image up the best he could (getting rid of the noise), so it would look the best it could on my desktop.

Here is what he surprisingly popped out in the matter of a few minutes:






Pretty damn good if I may say so myself.

With ez78 permission of the image being edited and uploaded, I could upload the full size version.


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## hyperloop (Feb 16, 2010)

bobisculous said:


> Here is what he surprisingly popped out in the matter of a few minutes:



I note he included the full moon and ET flying around on a bike too


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## Jarski (Feb 17, 2010)

I hope that these fall in this category.

Done with Fenix LD20 and hand






ROP 






ROP vs LD20











Of course you can check my other photos too


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## ez78 (Feb 17, 2010)

Jarski: Cool shots, I like the hand. Were you able to project your own hand or did you have an assistant standing at some distance from you? Oh and it's a good thing the world did not come to it's end when you crossed the beams.


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## ez78 (Feb 17, 2010)

bobisculous said:


> With ez78 permission of the image being edited and uploaded, I could upload the full size version.



Nice edit. You may post a link to it. It's too large photo to be shown here.


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## Jarski (Feb 17, 2010)

ez78 said:


> Jarski: Cool shots, I like the hand. Were you able to project your own hand or did you have an assistant standing at some distance from you? *Oh and it's a good thing the world did not come to it's end when you crossed the beams.*



I thought that too!

And yes, I was able to project the hand by myself. Right hand with fenix straight back and left hand with that "rabbit" straight front of the fenix. Distance between flashlight and my hand was maximum I could get without sawing my arms off


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## kramer5150 (Feb 17, 2010)

Wow those are cool!!
thanks gents for the pics!!


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## bobisculous (Feb 17, 2010)

ez78 said:


> Nice edit. You may post a link to it. It's too large photo to be shown here.



Yup. Here is the link to the full size version: http://gluggle.com/cameron/images/PylonRetake.jpg


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## Flashlight Aficionado (Feb 18, 2010)

bobisculous said:


> Yup. Here is the link to the full size version: http://gluggle.com/cameron/images/PylonRetake.jpg



:hahaha:


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## AnoyingOrange (Jan 25, 2012)

I know this post is a bit old, but it's GREAT!
I have a custom build XM-L flashlight that reaches 1KM or even more, but I could never reach a cloud; am I needing to wait a big storm? what is the distance necessary to reach a cloud?


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## FRITZHID (Jan 25, 2012)

AnoyingOrange said:


> I know this post is a bit old, but it's GREAT!
> I have a custom build XM-L flashlight that reaches 1KM or even more, but I could never reach a cloud; am I needing to wait a big storm? what is the distance necessary to reach a cloud?



well it varies depending on cloud height. i've hit many low clouds with my 35w stanley HID and even my 5w stanley LED and my 2 EDC Rockey 3AAA CREE LED. so just wait till clouds are low and give it a try


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## TEEJ (Jan 25, 2012)

AnoyingOrange said:


> I know this post is a bit old, but it's GREAT!
> I have a custom build XM-L flashlight that reaches 1KM or even more, but I could never reach a cloud; am I needing to wait a big storm? what is the distance necessary to reach a cloud?



If I'm flying in a plane, and I am just above the clouds, looking down at them, I could do a bounce with a penlight.


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## FRITZHID (Jan 26, 2012)

TEEJ said:


> If I'm flying in a plane, and I am just above the clouds, looking down at them, I could do a bounce with a penlight.



[email protected], lol


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## arek98 (Jan 26, 2012)

Picture of lower Manhattan that friend who lives in Jersey City took from his street.


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## Juggernaut (Jan 30, 2012)

Laser are cheating, but to be fair these are _*not*_ low ceiling clouds!


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## csshih (Jan 30, 2012)

....I think I hit a cloud.






-C


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