Photographing Daytime Lightning--The Ben Franklin Way

Capturing lightning with a camera during daytime can best be achieved by using an expensive lightning sensor trigger. I did not have this available on the evening of Tuesday, July 28, 2015 as a severe thunderstorm approached my position near Ainsworth, Iowa, so I had to resort to more basic means. Unlike night lightning, where one can keep the shutter open for several seconds, day lightning captures require high shutter speeds. The only method I could think of with the resources at my disposal was to use a feature of my Nikon D5000 DSLR camera to my advantage. That was the fact that when the shutter button is held down, a rapid succession of three shots occur. Also, lightning often flickers on, then off, then on again due to return strokes along its path. The focus was in manual mode, camera hand held, with my finger on the shutter waiting for the moment of the first flash. In some instances, with patience and luck, one of the three quick-fire shots captured a bolt.

The first lightning image, shown above, emanated from a rain shaft north of my position on Yucca Avenue, about .1-mile south of Highway 92 and about 1.8 miles east of Ainsworth. Time was 6:49 pm.

This lightning bolt was part of a severe-warned line of storms approaching from the west. Time was 7:40 pm.

Probably the most striking (pardon the pun) of the three images, this bolt emanates from a obvious point in a high-based cloud ten minutes later. Although it appears to strike a barn, the bolt was in fact much more distant. The lights of Ainsworth can be seen at right center.