The sky was glowing different colors throughout the day and if the world were to have ended, I would have believed it. I've always been fascinated by thunderstorms, ever since I was a young boy, but I had yet to capture one with my camera lens. Until this night. I happened to be on the ball, in the right place, and prepared.

I was up on my balcony in Bethesda, scanning the sky. There was a lot of lightning activity in Silver Spring, but even with my telephoto lens, it was difficult to capture accurately. There's a whole series of shots leading up to this one. It was amazing to watch the sky churn with anger. I was mesmerized.

To capture this image, I had my shutter on the "bulb" setting for increments of about 80 to 180 seconds. Due to the increasing darkness and the heavier rain showers, I was worried that I would not be able to capture anything. There was a triple lightning strike in-between my shutter opening and closing. I was disappointed. But in one frame, after I had held the shutter open for about 50 seconds, lightning struck within my frame! I was so startled and excited that I let my finger off of the shutter release too soon. (That's why there are details missing in the foreground and why you can almost see the cars on Wisconsin Avenue.)

But when I saw the image on the screen, I was so happy. I loaded it on my computer and just stared. I began to wonder if it would be stupid to hang an enlargement of that image on my wall, when the view is just outside. The jury is still out on that one. So now I've finally captured lightning, harnessing the powers of Zeus himself in my hand. It's not the first or the best lightning photo ever taken, but it's not my last, so there's still time to capture another great image.

Labels: bethesda, Justin Schuck, photography

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