Your Best Lightning Shot to date...

[T Wells]

Late afternoon monsoon thunderstorm near Page, AZ. The Glen Canyon dam is in the foreground. This storm drifted by with only an occasional strike. I have quite a few taken at night but the daytime shots are more more prized by me. I had been out on the Grand Canyon hoping to get a daytime lightning photo there which is a bucket list item for me. No luck on that trip since we opted to visit the north rim on that particular visit. The best shot at getting one was no good since the storm formed right over me and moved northeast away from the canyon.

Nikon Z6, Z 24-70 2.8 lens

ISO 100, f5.6, 1/320s

 

[gdlewen]

View attachment 24578
Early afternoon monsoon thunderstorm near Ruidoso, NM

If I could ask one thing of those posting pictures, it would be to provide some details of the camera type and settings. Just that much additional detail would be of great value as an instructional aid.

BTW--I do not mean to single out @T Wells or anyone in particular. I just love those shots and (and others posted here) and am curious about the settings used to take them....

 

[gdlewen]

I really value the context behind the experience that wraps (should wrap) the pictures we post. I realize that I may be in the minority here.

Here's an example. This picture was taken just south of the Rillito River on North Columbus Blvd, in Tucson Az, on August 8, 1979. (There: I have written Geoff is Pretty Old in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.)



Looking: East
Camera: Mamiya C330f 80mm lens
Film: Kodak 120mm ASA 100 B&W Film
Exposure: Bulb

I was studying and not planning to go out that evening. But this one sneaked up on me and I only had time to grab my camera and run out to the road, staying out until the rain began.

P.S. I absolutely despise power lines unless they are intentionally part of the composition, but there was no time to get clear of them.

 

[WPenn]

Started photographing storms last June, I was completely new to photography. Camera used is a Canon EOS 40D. My best lightning photo, as of now, is from July 24th, in Clark County, Kentucky. 1 single exposure. This is the original jpg, as being extremely new to photography I didn't save photos as RAW, or JPG & RAW. Really regret that now, and save both formats. Second photo is edited version.

A few of my most recent photos taken in Central Kentucky on 3/14/24.

 

[gdlewen]

Started photographing storms last June, I was completely new to photography. Camera used is a Canon EOS 40D. My best lightning photo, as of now, is from July 24th, in Clark County, Kentucky. 1 single exposure. This is the original jpg, as being extremely new to photography I didn't save photos as RAW, or JPG & RAW. Really regret that now, and save both formats. Second photo is edited version.

A few of my most recent photos taken in Central Kentucky on 3/14/24.

Winchester,Ky.jpg gets my vote.

 

[Greg Campbell]

One of the better from recent years. Lightning over the Mustang Mountains in Elgin, Az.

A7s with a 50mm or 35mm Rokinon lens and 6 stop ND filter since there was quite a bit of light in the sky near sunset. Shooting with the electronic shutter in continuous mode at a shutter speed of around 1/2 second. This is pretty much 'machine gunning' the lightning into submission! I get home with thousands of files to scan through. Fortunately, I can use Irfanview and other photo apps to play a very fast movie of the RAW images. At ~8 FPS, the shots with lightning jump out quite nicely. The up-side to machine-gunning is that I usually catch all of the branching stepped-leader tree as it discharges early in the event. Using a trigger often misses some of this structure. The downside is occasional torn frames due to the ~30ms rolling shutter on the A7s. I hope to get an A9-1, with ~6ms shutter, or maybe (?!) plonk for the A9-3. The A9-3, with global shutter and pre-capture, should be exceedingly good at lightning stills and video.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Best night of lightning photography that I've had since that May 2020 evening in Kansas. This was taken back on Tax Night in eastern Nebraska on a series of sub-severe storms that moved north across I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha. The CG output on these storms was insane, up to 10 bolts per minute. I'm several days removed and still haven't processed all the images.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Tony, those are fantastic! Definitely the best thing that happened anywhere that day. The one with the tower strike is particularly interesting. That is a single exposure, correct? If so, that’s a truly rare event to have an upward flash associated with a negative CG event!

 

[James K]

Those photos are awesome Tony. Wow.

 

[James K]

On Apr 26 we had 3 separate little thunderstorms come over my area (surprizing being 'too early' in the season for thunder(not to mention storms where 2 of them got severe-warned), and to get not just 1, but 3! one after another )

I ofcourse videoed them - since I love the lightning part of storms (outside when it wasn't raining, inside when it was). There was deff some nice strikes. Some turned out pretty decent as frame-grabs (from a nothing special camcorder.) ... though nothing compared to some of the sweet shots posted in this thread.

A few of them:

 

[Tony Laubach]

Tony, those are fantastic! Definitely the best thing that happened anywhere that day. The one with the tower strike is particularly interesting. That is a single exposure, correct? If so, that’s a truly rare event to have an upward flash associated with a negative CG event!

Dan, sorry man! Just seeing this. The tower shot is actually a composite of two different exposures. And I'm not 100% sure those were upward strikes more so than multiple strikes hitting the tower. I may have video that I can look at, but I don't THINK those were upwards strikes. I am on the road so I don't have the original two exposures on hand, but I will take a looksie when I get home cause I honestly didn't really notice. haha

The Lincoln shot was one exposure... I remember about peeing myself when I saw that come out on the screen. It was two flashes, one of which had the four bolts, the second hit toward the end of the exposure (8 seconds I believe). I was in lightning heaven that night.

 

[Steve Frederick]

One Lightning capture & a very strange cloud.


Update: One of my nieces sent me this. Captured somewhere in South Dakota earlier today.

 

[Dave C]

Currently cleaning up the photo drives and thought I would share here. My best lightning is all from unique locations or circumstances. I have some ok shots of lightning besides this but they don't have anything really unique about them. I don't think I have shared to this thread before, but I might have posted one or two of these in reports threads.

Images:
1 and 2: Grand Canyon 2016
3: Piestewa Peak 2022
4: Leoti KS 2016 (Handheld, how lucky is that!)

Really hoping for some new chances this monsoon season for something unique and incredible.

Grandy Canyon Bolts 2016


Grandy Canyon Bolts 2016


Piestewa Peak 2022. 100 Degrees at night sweaty hike!


Leoti 2016 - hand held luck!

 

[Steve Frederick]

July 4, 2024 southeastern Minnesota

 

[Steve Frederick]

Currently cleaning up the photo drives and thought I would share here. My best lightning is all from unique locations or circumstances. I have some ok shots of lightning besides this but they don't have anything really unique about them. I don't think I have shared to this thread before, but I might have posted one or two of these in reports threads.

Images:
1 and 2: Grand Canyon 2016
3: Piestewa Peak 2022
4: Leoti KS 2016 (Handheld, how lucky is that!)

Really hoping for some new chances this monsoon season for something unique and incredible.



Leoti 2016 - hand held luck!
View attachment 26071

WOW!