lightning

Lightning is fascinating, and photographing it takes enormous patience and many deleted exposures. The first thing you learn is that opening up the aperture results in over-exposed lightning. Shooting f/7 or slower works much better. Other essentials are a tripod and remote shutter control. I've found that exposure times of 8-15 seconds are a good compromise between digital sensor noise and actually catching something in the frame. With each passing year, cameras allow greater exposure times with virtually no noise penalty. Lastly, you have to lose your fear of lightning and ruining your camera in the rain!