Your Best Lightning Shot to date...

[Larry Stein]

New Mexico Lightning

This was shot about 100 miles north of Roswell NM on Aug 18, 2009. We had followed a series of cells along the Texas/NM border looking for good lightning opportunities.
-Larry

 

[Scott Sims]

I failed at posting images hosted elsewhere correctly to this thread before, but here goes another try with simple attachments.

Best Night Shots. This was hard, so I will stick the top two both from the same evening. 5-3-2010 near Ziegler, IL



Best Daytime Shot. 4-5-2010 near Odessa, MO

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Tough finding the best but here are a few.

July 20, 2009 in the backyard

July 27, 2009 close to home

August 4, 2009 Eminence, MO strange blue color to the lightning.

June 5, 2010 Same place as July 27 pic.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

I have many but a few stand out for me:



Close Up: One of the other branches of this strike hit a weather instrument pack about 6 feet from my head!

 

[Verne Carlson]

July 27, 2006 Looking out over Denver, CO from 9000ft.

 

[Laura Duchesne]

May 12, 2009 near Childress, TX

 

[chadvia]

5/5/2010 Minster Ohio

 

[Karla Dorman]

Lightning? WHAT Lightning? :/

Meh ... I'd love to be able to shoot lightning, but have NO luck with it. Only twice, three times I've actually caught a bolt? Usually, it's 200 plus stills, delete, delete, delete.

Mine look like crud next to yours, but here's my two best. Loving your images!!

 

[jason kissam]

taken at various points around security colorado. the last one makes me smile cause thats the same spot i had the tornado on 6/20/08. must be a magnetic spot for weather photos there

 

[Marcus Hicks]

I'd have to say by far this is my favorite. Taken Aug 5th 2009

 

[Josh VandenTop]

This is by far the best lightning that I've captured. These are stills pulled from the video taken on 7-10-10 south of White Lake, SD

 

[Ed Boik]

I've got a set of 28 I took in the Summer Monsoon of 2008 on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boiker/sets/72157612138762982/

 

[Christopher E. Kincaid]

These are my best from this year:

 

[william mattil]

Some terrific shots in this thread. Thanks everyone for posting them. Any particular techniques that you use to get them ?

Not having a lot of luck with this personally

Regards

Bill

 

[chadvia]

Some terrific shots in this thread. Thanks everyone for posting them. Any particular techniques that you use to get them ?

Not having a lot of luck with this personally

Regards

Bill

Use a digital SLR camera (preferably digital) with a remote shutter release. Set the shutter to "bulb mode" so you can leave the shutter open for as long as you like. I try to get to the storm a little early to play with the aperature settings to adjust to the amount of light you are letting in. (evening shots will differ from night shots) Take a few practice shots counting how many seconds you leave the shutter open and ensure the exposure is where you want it... then click away!

Just don't get discouraged. I often take 100+ shots and may end up with only 1-5% of them having a lighting shot that I feel is worth printing. But the one shot always makes it worth it.

I also have the camera mounted on my dash board in the truck, so I can relocate easy and don't have to worry about getting the camera wet. May have to photoshop out a few rain drops from the windshield, but that's usually about it.

Good luck!

Chad