I can also see that you've gotten an impressive picture of some cloud to ground lightning strikes some distance from your position. Being a lightning and weather fanatic, I was wondering if you could show me some techniques of taking pictures of lightning. I'm aware of the standard and general tactics, but I'd like to know how to get intrinsic and distinctive photos. I know it's not exactly the place for it, but perhaps some brief details.

Just noticed this now, sorry for the late response!

Lightning is really (mostly) a matter of luck. You up your f-stop as high as you can go during the day...at night, you don't need to so much. Set an exposure time of at least 2 seconds (if it's dark enough, increase this as much as you can), aim to where you think you're going to see lightning, and take many many photos. You might need to adjust your aperture and exposure time a bit based on how light it is outside. This technique has produced many good results for me, but most storms I shoot, I get nothing at all (maybe some blurry tree branches silhouetted against some sheet lightning )...you also have to consider that you don't want to get your camera too wet ...I have also found that you can improve your odds by noticing the lightning's recurrance interval...how long it takes for the charge to build up. Anyway, if you've seen a lot of nice forks of lightning, grab that camera, set up your tripod, and give it a go, you will probably get something that is at least okay.

Note: people tend to gawk at lightning photos, and give them the absolute highest praise, even if the photo isn't that great, and despite the fact that it's mostly luck anyway. So you gotta make it sound like it's such a burden taking such awesome photos, and play it up, make them think it was hard, otherwise, the jig's up

Hi Chris,

I thank you for your advice regarding the lightning pictures. I'm aware of most of what you said since getting pics of lightning is a matter of luck given its unpredictability. I'm also aware that it's best to actually interpret where you "think" the flash/bolt will strike in a main viewpoint area in addition to taking multiple photographs on that spot.

Aside from that, thanks for the points and tips on a smaller scale regarding the camera techniques. I wasn't too clear on how to actually keep the camera in focus as well as the exposure time, but thank you for the clarifications. However, what type of camera do you use? Would all cameras be equally as effective?

As for giving credit to lightning pictures, trust me, I can point out really good shots, especially when the time is ideal, as well as the given area. I've seen many attempts out there and I can certainly say that I've seen some great photos of this atmospheric electrical phenomenon. Given that sheet lightning/intra cloud ligthtning is the most common of all types, it's rare to get cloud to ground bolts given that you get those roughly 25% of the time, which is why I thought you got a pretty nice photo there while taking into consideration that it was night time, which made it more feasible.

In any case, Chris, thank you for the advice, but I'm sure we could have gotten a lot of excellent shots on the night of the big storm on August 1st! The strength and frequency of strong charge build-up that evening was incredible because of the degree of the updraft. As a result, due to all the factors (which I won't go into detail), many types of lightning could form with ease! We had at least 2-3 to even 4 strikes/flashes per second which ultimately denotes a supercell. I was thinking about getting shots that night, but it was too dangerous to do so because of the time interval between strikes.

Cheers,

Trav.