Accidental Lightning Picture

[Joey Ketcham]

This has to be 1 in a million...

I've never been able to successfully do lightning photography. I got a few faint flashes a few years ago when I attempted, but never an actual lightning bolt.. and especially during the day. But that changed Sunday morning, and it was on pure accident.

I was driving home after out watching some severe storms that passed through my area. I stuck my digital camera out the window as I was driving down the road to snap a few random pictures. I had no idea how they would turn out since I couldn't see how the shot was composed, I was just pointing the camera at the clouds and snaping pictures. After taking a couple shots I started to bring my hand/camera back into the vehicle when I accidentally hit the shutter button and snapped a picture. I do this a lot, except this time at that very second there happened to be a clould-to-ground lightning bolt, and I captured it on my camera when I accidentally hit the shutter button.

Here is the picture, the lightning is right above/behind the tree's.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Yeah, it is one in a million. I usually set my Pentax Option E30 to film the sky and later get the lightning from a video still.

 

[Travis Davis]

I have also taken a photo on accident of lightning. I got a newer digital camera and was just taking pictures while driving down the road just to see what the quality looked like. When I got home, I thought it was pretty neat that I had actually captured a lightning strike with it.

As you can tell, the camera failed at taking pictures while moving, but it is still interesting to see.

 

[David Drummond]

I have managed to get a number of good "point and shoot" lightning shots over the years. I usually try this with the CGs that flash a number of times before dissipating. I'll try this when I see a number of these happening in a particular area. I got some on film and on digitial. It's easier of course if your not moving.

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

When I started out with lightning photography I swore that in order to get the lightning photo you would have to time the lightning and hut the shutter in that moment to catch it which in most cases is impossible. Looks like several of you have succeeded in this. =) While I have not yet captured a lightning bolt without Long exposure or Frame grabs I must say that it would be rad to get a lightning bolt photograph like you all have. Congrats....

-gerrit

 

[Adam Lucio]

I dont have a fancy camera, I managed to get these using the fireworks show setting. They are the only two real pictures Ive managed to get so far, but lightning photography interests me and I do plan on purchasing a camera capable of long exposure shots in the future.

On my last real chase to south dakota my friend got this one on accident, I was jealous!!

Congrats on beating the odds tho! You should try and play the lotto next