I’m not a hardcore storm chaser, but one of my close friends is, and he invited me out one night to chase this lightning display.   Now I don’t know about you, but I reckon me that’s a lightning strike!

Now, this was a fun night.  Here’s a storm chasing tip for you: if you’re chasing a lightning storm and driving out in the middle of nowhere in the dark, you may not want to be doing so with a sports car.

I showed up at the spot where we were supposed to setup, and promptly got stuck in mud (I could not see well in the dark).  My buddy got a good laugh at me (as I was blaming it all on him), tried digging me out, then we just said “forget it” and called the fine folks at Geico to get the car pulled.   Being photographers, we just decided to leave the car and go get setup to shoot.

The tow truck arrived an our or so later.  The driver took a look at the car and gave me this look that said: 1.  Are you aware, sir, this car is not a Hummer?  2. What are you doing out here at the edge of a lightning storm with a large metal pole? (aka tripod).   I quickly informed him how this was all my friend’s fault (my “friend” who was heartily enjoying taking photos of the whole incident for Facebook) and just took the abuse :).

It’s all good;  in the end, it’s a good shot and it was a night to remember.

I call this shot ‘Lightning Man’, by the way, as it looks like a figure of a man in the sky.  This is a 30sec exposure shot at f/10 ISO 400.