Furious Skies

Some pretty weak thunderstorm convection took place early in the morning on March 1st. I debated all night long whether I wanted to stay up and wait for a lightning opportunity or not. I was yawning by 10 o'clock but still just wanted to hold out a bit more. I watched the radar all night long and paid close attention to the lightning strike chart on the home page (near the bottom). I was really counting on getting nothing since I thought the bolts were going to be tucked behind all the rain shafts. But, I also had an idea in my head for about two months that I wanted to put to use. No way did I think there would still be snow on the ground when our first "thunderstorm" rolled through. There wasn't much, but I still pulled off a very unique shot in my humble opinion. I did a world of research on the internet and could not find a single picture which featured both a lightning bolt and snow. I consider myself VERY lucky that I had this chance. While sitting in the seat with the window mount attached, I saw many, MANY flashes but only saw one bolt the first hour I sat there. The rain would pick up a little here and there and I found myself talking to it, saying "no, not yet!" Finally I just pointed the camera toward where the majority of the flashes were taking place, set the camera for 30 second exposures at f/4, ISO 100 and locked the cable release up. The rain gradually picked up more and more, and I was literally about a minute from forgetting the entire situation, packing up and heading for home. Right about the time I was thinking this "BOOM!", there it was. The only question I had in my mind was whether or not the bolt was in the frame. Right after that exposure was up, I flipped the switch back down, dismounted the camera and previewed it on the LCD. It was a tad blown out, but after post-processing it came out pretty clear. Anyway, it's just one measly little lightning bolt, but it's a rare one at that. I'm sure many people do have shots with lightning and snow, but I was just happy that I was able to pull one off. I stayed for just a little bit longer after that but the rain really started to pick up and I really didn't want to chance damaging my equipment. On the way home the flashes became more frequent and I saw a ton of spots that I am now kicking myself for not pulling over and giving it another try. The only thing that I think could have made the picture better was more snow.

Flashes lit up the horizon in this shot, but no bolt. This was actually right after I set up, one of the first shots.

This is the shot. This is cropped from the original. After reviewing it closer last night, I realized I actually captured two bolts, the other being off to the right (not in this shot)

Here is the original shot. I enhanced the color to show the very faint bolt on the right hand side a little better. It's there, but you might have to squint.

One last cropped shot of the second bolt.