This is the is the final shot i got out of about 200 images and it took about an hour for me to get it, in the cold and windy rain.

1. Canon 7D or any camera that has manual settings
2. Manfrotto Tripod or any solid tripod for support
3. Canon 10-22 mm or Canon16-35mm Wide angle lens or any wide angle lens.
3. Canon Timer Remote
4. Umbrella if it’s raining (optional)
5. Glad 45 gallon trash bags (optional) i used it as raincoat.

Choose a spot where you have a good view of the sky. set up all your gear indoors if you can, it will probably be raining during a lightning storm.

these are the settings i used, but you will have to do some test shots, depending on what results you want. Manual focus, bulb mode, 9.0 f-stop 10″ shutter speed, and ISO 200. if you need more info on these settings refer to this lesson about aperture, shutter speed and ISO

Try to use manual focus so your camera won’t waste time on focusing, because the lightning will be so far away, somewhere in the infinity range would be the best.

you want to be able to control the shutter speed in this case, because it is almost impossible to catch the lightning as it’s coming down. i used 10 second intervals to capture my photo.

This is the final shot, after an hour of waiting in the cold and windy rain. i wish there were more lightning, but living in Hawaii we don’t get too many lightning and thunder storms.

Here are quick tips to help you get some awesome shots.
1. Be careful, mother nature can be unpredictable and you can get seriously hurt if you get hit by a lightning bolt.
2. Check weather info for the best time to shoot your photo
3. Use bulb shooting mode and long exposures to maximize your chance capturing a lightning bolt.
4. You got to be patient, remember most photos are not by chance, you got to plan it out and wait for the shot, especially when you have no control over the subject you are shooting.
5. Last of all, make sure you having your fun and enjoy your photo-shoot, that’s the whole reason you started photography, right?

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