Post your Lightning photos

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Moab Man

Senior Member
Ijustwant1 said:
I like that George ( @Moab Man ), are those mountains in the back ground or just cloud formations ?
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You are correct, those are the Rocky Mountains. I've said before we just don't get some of that great long cloud to ground lightning that I've seen shots of from Australia and that I remember from when I lived in Miami, Florida. While waking up this morning it dawned on me why, it's our altitude. We are nearly a mile up (1.6 km) and I suspect we are just so close to the cloud layer it kind of kills the opportunity for long dramatic lightning strikes. The photo you like is the lightning going horizontal and then slightly down and into the mountain.

Good eye catching the Rocky Mountains in the background.
 
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Thumper_6119

Thumper_6119

Senior Member
Contributor
My very first attempt at taking lightning shots during a thunderstorm last year.

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M

Moab Man

Senior Member
traceyjj said:
Some fabulous shots here... is there any trick to taking shots of lightning? I've never managed a successful one yet :(
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@traceyjj

My method is to wait for a truly active thunderhead that has some consistency in generating lightning. I then shoot long exposure (night) of about 30 seconds with a wide angle lens. If lightning goes off I have an exposed shot. No lightning and I have a picture of the darkness.

A really good thunderhead will have almost a timing and once you're in the groove you can pick up a lot of shots. Or, if you're out of the groove you seem to miss a lot - FRUSTRATION. I also shoot with my widest lens unless the storm is really tight and consistent in where the lightning is discharging at.

Triggering the camera is my remote or a 2 second timer delay.
 
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