This mornings lightning storm

I awoke to flashes of light outside my windows at 4:30am. First thought was what were the police doing outside and then I noticed the storm. I made it over to Lake Conway in Central Arkansas just minutes before the rain started. I had four good strikes and one exposure that lit up the lake in a five minute time span. Then the rain came and it was time to head home.

Image is combined from all usable images. Five in all. Not the greatest image but is was more experience in quick setup. Tim Ernst even noticed the flashed from his house. I wished that I had gotten out a little faster and I may have come up with some keepers. Maybe next time!

ISO400 4800kelvin 70mm f5.6 for each eight second burst
86 images in all. Only five had strikes

Yours looks better than mine. I caught the tail end of the storm at about 6:30 out near Holland. I missed an awesome strike while I was moving the camera. This is the only strike I got.

http://matthewkennedyphotography.blogspot.com/

A very "striking" image! I like it a lot. I am impressed with your skill at compositing images.

Nice shots, Mike!

I was headed to Holla Bend about that time and thought about stopping up on Petit Jean and seeing what I might be able to catch, but by the time I got there the clouds had closed in and there just wasn't the view that I would have needed to catch the lightening properly.

Nice blending of multiple shots as well.

Dave H.

David, I had the same issue even at lower altitude along the lake. I had just a few minutes to pull this off before jumping back in the car. I was wondering if you and Matthew had gotten any images? I just wished that I had been out thirty minutes earlier. Next time I need to lower my my F stop a little more. My images were too dark for my liking. There's always room for improvement!

Here is another version: Each photo is -layered onto another image- select "screen" and 100percent- flattened- next photo layered- repeat. It was that simple with this set. I did "dodge" a little on the sky to lighten it up.

I also didn't include the lake image.

I much prefer the first version which I think is great.

An impressive display made all the more appealling by the multi shot layered image.

Electrifying work Mike!

Mike I like the first one better also, the colors are better. Great work on capturing these.

Nice work Mike, I agree with Gale, I like the first one the best.

Nice job combining the images, the first version is definitely better. I woke up this morning to thunder/lighting but didn't have time to get out to a place to shoot before the rains came.

I'm glad you made it out for that show! Nice job on the captures and layers.