This shot was taken locally mid summer last year and has been one of my favorites.

[chemtech]

Beautiful lightning capture, Snowfox!

[Scootatheschool1990]

Great capture! but how? so great!

[snowfox]

Sorry for the late reply its been a crazy week for me. Its easier then most peeps think, the problem is location and luck but the mechanics are simple enough. Hint its time lapse :P Tracking and following the storm is the hard part and thats experience and a fair amount of risk assesment. The story on that shot is there was a larger cell actually behind me flashing up a great show but it was covered by a rain shroud and didnt show alot of promise however that fellow just sparked a couple times every 5 mins or so, I ended up with about 50 shots of just rain before I got a pair that are worth it. You will need a tripod of course for long exposures, a lense that can focus out to infinity manually is preffered, the other factors like how long to keep the shutter open and what apature just comes with practice and situation. Also a healthy respect for the storm, lightning can hit you even if your not the tallest item out in the field, and alot of luck.

[jbinpg]

Nice cloud-to-cloud capture!

[BigJPR]

Correct me if I am wrong, would this also be possible by using the Bulb mode and just close the shutter after 1) lightning or 2) the exposure is too long and will ruin everything else in the image, in this case, close shutter and open up again. right? no? ok. =)

[snowfox]

You are correct you could use bulb mode, and to be honest I did start taking pictures this way. But with the Pentax K-X I use which sadly doesnt have a remote release port, the IR works but you have to be in front of it for it to work, so its easier for me to just get the exposure I like by doing a couple test shots "you can get cool effects with a single light and a field btw", and then do a series of time lapse to try to catch thinngs