Sometimes waiting around after you think storms have moved on or dyed pays off every so often as they did tonight. Tonight’s storms were scattered and went up fast and collapsed just as quick. This shot took place from a fresh and newly developed storm right over Virginia Beach. The storm was so fresh that it had not even reached a mature stage for lightning but had very heavy rain. The very first bolt to leap out of the top of the storm was from the photo below which was a pretty powerful lightning strike. The storm moved to the East and most of the lightning from the rest of the storm was in the heavy rain core and not visible. Also another note with concern to lightning and cameras is I have noticed a difference in photo quality between the Nikon D200 and the Nikon D300. I still have not locked on if it is just atmospheric conditions or if lightning has different effect on a camera with a CCD or a Cmos sensor. I will tell you that it seems like the Nikon D300 is a lot more sensitive to lightning strike like the one below then the D200 was. I will have to take some more shots before I can give a final answer to the question.

I make a habit to look up at the sky whenever I get time and sometimes I see amazing things that most people will miss just because they don’t take the time to look up and admire the beauty that nature has to offer above our heads. Besides weddings and portraits I love what the skies have to offer which could be lightning, sunsets,shooting star or even a rare event of aurora.  Somethings are burned in your mind forever like the very first time I saw the Northern Lights in Virginia.  I remember the date of November 8, 2004 like it was yesterday as I was watching the data from a solar flare that left the sun two days before the big event. All the info and reports concluded that the lights were visible even further south then Virginia. I drove out to Back Bay  past the North Carolina border to a spot that I have used for taking pictures of the stars or for meteor shower events which takes about thirty minute to get to from my location. During the drive I would look to the North and be somewhat disappointed to not see any glimpse of color in the sky. I pulled up to the location, turned the headlights off in the car and stepped out to a jaw dropping display of one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. This was the first time I have witness the Northern Lights and everything I have read about them took place right in front of my eyes. The colors of orange, yellow, green, and even some blues and purple moved across the black velvet starry sky. I stood there looking and lost my train of thought forgetting that I need to set up the camera to record this event. I took photos for about an hour before the lights started to draw back to the North. I came home to edit the photos sending one to the Virginia Pilot newspaper which was used in a large article on the front page. The response from the photo was overwhelming and I received so many orders for the photo. I remember one that I sold where a couple had a grandfather who died two minutes before the photo was taken. The eleven year solar cycle is on the upward spiral so I look forward to new sun spots and maybe another chance at this type of photography.