Last night, the most impressive thunderstorm I've seen in years rumbled across the plains of Nebraska, spawning tornadoes from Kearney to Fairbury. I made a few phone calls to check up on friends in Kearney, then got the old camera out. After 126 exposures of empty sky and three with tiny flashes of light in the corners, this beauty happened:
Lightning is a fickle harlot to photograph, especially in the city. It is not particularly technically challenging, but rather takes a little patience and a lot of luck. I had my aperture fairly wide open (f/3.2) for this shot and it seemed to work out, but from what I hear, f/5.6 to f/8 is usually recommended for catching lightning. The city lights bouncing off the low cloud ceiling was the most irritating part; the light pollution forced very short (on the order of two seconds) exposure times to keep the sky from being too bright.
As far as composition goes, in retrospect it would have been a good idea to have the horizon in the shot. I'm not sure whether Oldfather Hall adds to or detracts from the image, but the lone tree on the left is definitely bad - I considered cloning it out.
Photographing storms can be intensely exciting or it can be an exercise in frustration, but it's definitely worth trying at least once or twice. Finally, if your storm happened during the day, stick around afterward; post-thunderstorm sunsets can be pretty spectacular.
Sunset after a heavy rain
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