We recently had a major thunderstorm here in the Vancouver (Canada) area. It isn’t that common to witness this phenomenon around here, at least with the intensity of the latest one!
I couldn’t free myself from my barbequing duties at the time, but I swore I wouldn’t miss the next one, whenever it would be…
Many people think that lightning photography is difficult: “How do you manage to pull the trigger fast enough to catch the lightning??!”. Well, that’s the thing, you don’t!
The key is to do it at night (day lightning photography IS difficult!). Since it is nightime and, hopefully, everything is dark outside, leaving the shutter open for a few seconds will result in capturing nothing, so that’s cool. The game is to leave your shutter open and wait for the lightning to strike. At that point, you close the shutter, and it’s in the box!!
Of course, there are some extra considerations, like the requirement for a bulb function on your camera, a sturdy tripod and a cable release. Also, keep in mind that lightning is dangerous, so don’t stand in the middle of an empty field while the elements are unraveling, and stay under cover (much more comfortable too, when it rains!).
Zap!