Palmer Divide Lightning

Got a call from my friend Jim that we were getting some great Palmer Divide Lightning coming into our neighborhood.  He invited me over to get some shots; but I couldn’t find the camera which was put out of reach to avoid accidents while my son and friends had a video game fest!

I ended up finding the camera and quickly set up on the back porch as I didn’t have time to head over to my buddy’s place across the neighborhood.  Since this was dusk I set the exposure for one second and closed down the aperture (f11) to limit the light so I could get a longer exposure.  I then put it on rapid fire and started taking photos.

The storm’s bolts got within about I estimate 500 feet which was a bit close but I was able to capture some shots before the rain overtook me…luckily I have a safe setup when shooting from the back porch.  The storm was hardly yellow on the radar so it was a special treat to be putting out any lightning.

This was the closest. You can start to see the intense parts of the bolt (towards the top, the “balls” along the path) and that fizzled away by dissolving; which is really cool to see. Might be hard to imagine but if you’ve seen up close lightning you probably will know what I’m referring to.