I <3 Thunder and Lightning

I fucking love thunderstorms, always have and always will.

_{Unless I get struck by a lightning, then we’ll revisit this statement again.}

After couple of hot and humid days, the pressure finally build to its breaking point and a thunderstorm rolled in yesterday afternoon. That’s how weather works right? I was very lucky to live at the coast where the heavy thunderstorm travelled along. Usually the show lasts 10 minutes or so, an hour sometimes but rarely does it go on for 4-6 hours like yesterday, which is a shame in my opinion because the lightning flashes are so beautiful, followed by the cozy deep rumble. I am a fan.

I was super excited when the distant rumble started to come closer and turn into a very visible light show. Lightning is notoriously hard to capture in photos for its unpredictability and lightning fast speed HIHI. I was very ill prepared and just as much out of practise, it’s embarrasing really. At first I didn’t even try much because it was so bright outside that there was no chance to shoot long exposure, and it was also raining heavily on and off. _{Could have used that time to charge extra batteries, format memory cards and set up in a good spot, but alas, I didn’t and payed the price later.}

For some time I just enjoyed to show but then it turned to evening with the whole sky going from dull grey to vibrant and contrast-y, with a double rainbow and all the while lightning flashing, and I scrambled to the attic with my gear.

It was very stressful to get settings and composure right all while trying not to miss the best moments. You see, the flashes that just light the clouds don’t really look like anything in pictures, you need to capture the visible lightning. I first shot with a timelapse, resulting in over 1000 photos with maybe 2 lightnings in them, even thought I saw a lot, and when it finally got dark enough, I could relax with 20-30second exposures.

I was hurrying to find extra batteries and a charger and spare memory card and then it was raining into my lens and it’s dark and dirty in the attic and only one of my more interesting composures had a visible lightning flash and that sucks but in the end I got something I liked. PHEW!