Friday the 20th of November saw a FANTASTIC storm cell move across the lower part of the Central Coast with the centre over Umina. This was one hell of a storm with amazing amounts of Lightning. The storm was slow moving so I was able to catch it perfectly. I stopped the camera down to f16 and set it to a 1 second exposure and a 2stop filter. After I saw where the lightning was stiking most often I trained my camera in the area and shot image after image. Luckly the Nikon can shoot 26 images straight without stop. in most cases I only had to count up to about 10 shots before I recorded lightning. as the storm got closer I found that I could take it up to f11 and get even better results with brighter lightning. I have selected some of the better images to show you 2 from the beach and then 3 more after i to seek shelter from the rain.
Hope you enjoy.
Gary you above almost all people should know I would be the first idiot standing outside during the storm. Image 2 was the closest stike which was less than 500m by esitmate on sound. There was a definate close strike on the beach which I didnt catch that had me jump about 6 feet. At best the lightning struck at the waterline while I was under the new SLC at Umina, about 100m away.
I have included 2 more images from that shoot as well.
Image 2 was the closest stike which was less than 500m by esitmate on sound.
At close range the thunder doesn't rumble. It just goes BANG.
The closest strike I can be sure of was on the palm tree across the road. There was no delay between the flash and the bang, the house shook , and the tree caught fire.
streuth!! 
