The damn storm came so fast I barely had time to get outside. Trying to make as little noise as possible (Amme had to wake up at 3am to work) I grabbed a parka and a plastic shopping bag, and ran outside with my tripod in hand. It wasn’t quite raining when I got outside, so panting and trying not to drop my camera, I tore a hole in the bag just smaller than my lens and slid it over my camera (I really need to get a waterproof case). It still had a tiny hint of body showing, but it decided was worth the risk. I carried it out under my parka into the breezy night air.

I found a spot with an unobstructed view of the sky a few hundred feet away from my building, so I sat down and set up my tripod. Just then the skies opened up and began to pour. With the camera under my parka (except the lens), I began snapping away. I experimented with a number of shutter speeds ranging from 2 seconds to 30. My camera unfortunately has a 1:1 shutter/processing time ratio, so when I shoot 30 seconds, it processes 30 seconds, forcing me to miss a lot of shots.

The storm clouds were racing overhead and I was doing my best to keep my camera as dry as I could. The storm was almost overhead! Aiming about 60 degrees up, I decided to shoot a 4 second speed, only to shoot nothing, wait 4 as the lightning struck, shoot another 4 seconds with no strikes, then wait 4 as it struck again. This was so frustrating. It was like the lightning was trying to keep off-beat with me. I waited 4 seconds then shot, so that I could sync up to it, but as the lightning got closer, its frequency changed! I could only get tiny hints of a bolt. Frustration started to wear away at my hopefulness and time was running out.

The rain was beating down hard enough to hurt my ears, and the thunder was deafening, but I had to have my shot. Pointing straight up in the sky now, I decided if I wanted to catch a good strike I had to be patient and use the agonizingly slow 30 second shutter speed, the highest my poor camera can go, even though I only had minutes before the storm passed behind me. About three shots later, I finally got my wish…

A blinding supernova exploded directly overhead! I stared in awe at the now blackened sky, a shit-eating grin spread across my face, and waited for the comming hammer blow. “CRACK!” The sky bellowed a roar at me that echoed across the landscape like a thousand gunshots. Then, seemingly as fast as it had come, the storm raced off.

I’d be the first to admit it’s a lame photo compared to some of the astounding lightning shots out there on the web. However this one is *mine*. The wetness, the cold, the danger to my camera… In the end they were all worth it for my first strike.