On Monday night, we had an incredible lightning storm. The strikes were so close and were
so bright that it would look like daylight for a few seconds. Even though there wasn’t any rain,
it would have been too dangerous to go outside but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to
catch some lightning so I ran upstairs, opened a window, held the camera against the window
frame and held the shutter for 30 sec. I kept shooting for about 10 minutes and caught lightning
in almost every shot. The following were my favorites. Where was my tripod? Somewhere else 🙂

Canon 5DMK2, Canon 24-70, f/6.7, ISO 800, 30 seconds

Canon 5DMK2, Canon 24-70, f/8, ISO 800, 30 seconds

At ISO 800, the noise was almost non existent. The color cast was interesting this time but I liked
how it worked with the artistic blur so I didn’t change it. All I did was bump up the contrast a little.

Monsoon season doesn’t guarantee rain so we’re happy for any amount.
Monsoons deliver winds, higher humidity, dramatic clouds and great light shows.
Last night, our area was lucky to get a bonus of about an hour of rain.

(ISO 400, 6 sec at f.8. Long exposure was to catch lightning)