Lightning

 I was out on a warm evening taking pictures of Denver from inside the city. Buildings, streets, whirring cars and their lights. People frozen and others blurred by motion in a timed exposure. The tuktuk drivers whizzing past with their lights all buzzing. Lots or color, lots of action.

As things were winding down I heard the distant sound of thunder. I went to a few locations to see if I could capture some lightning with my camera. I could hear the thunder, but it seemed like the lightning was deep in the clouds but not showing bolts.

I set up my camera in a fairly dry location as it began to rain. Frame your shot and make sure the focus is good - manual focus. Use a fast ISO 3200, short shutter 1/100 and take lots of pictures. I decided I had the best chance of getting a shot if I used my interval timing and then looked for lightning later. I set up several 100 shot groups and let the camera get to work. Eventually I did get a few bolts of lightining and it looked pretty good up against the city buildings.

Learned:

1. Find a dry place to shoot if you're lucky. Look for an awning or covered entry like I did at the Cum -n-Go.
2. Lights on bikes, scooters and tuktuk make cool patterns in a timed exposure
3. Lightning is hard to capture - use brute force!