Lightning

[Steve Foss]

Lots of times lightning is hard for a photographer to catch, especially ground strikes, which usually (not always) are so fast that it's impossible to see the strike, trip the shutter and catch it.

But cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes often last a second or two, and are given away by a beginning flash of light, so they are easier to catch. While I did catch a couple ground strikes last night after a whopping strong line of thunderstorms passed over Ely, I like this one a lot better.

Canon 30D, Canon 17-40 f4L at 40mm, iso100, manual exposure 2 sec at f8, manual focus, remote shutter release triggered as soon as sky began to light up

[finnbay]

Pretty impressive! There was some dandy lightning around last night. I see a two second exposure, was this one continuous strike or did you get lucky enough to catch two bolts? Were you shooting from the "back porch"? Did you get your hair singed? The thought crossed my mind about trying to get some lighning across the lake, but it never stopped raining and I wasn't going to sit with my gear in that.

Awesome shot!

[Steve Foss]

Ken, it was a continuation of one long multiple strike. The bottom bolts were all together and the top bolt popped in there just before the shutter closed. It was so close I wasn't even sure if I'd gotten it until looking on the LCD.

I was shooting out my second-floor office window, which faces Miners Lake to the east. The scenery ain't that grand, however. You can see from these spruces how tempting it is to get out the Stihl and get to work.

[jonny_redhorse]

great captures Steve!....sure was alot of lightning here also last night!....computer screen flickered a few times...

[Dbl]

Great timing! I was driving up to Rainy Lake during those storms. Wow, lightning and rain that was un-real!

[Andrew Erickson]

awesome!

[fishinchicks]

I was thinking of this photo last night as I was driving through a nasty thunderstorm near the Buffalo Ridge. We had contemplated pulling over to get some shots - until we saw a wind tower get hit by a large bolt of lightning. We decided we would rather just hurry home.