Lightning Strikes

Living in California lightning is not very common, maybe only once a year in the area where I live. This was only my second time capturing lightning with my camera. Ironically, both times were from hotels. The first time was in Las Vegas as lightning hit the top of the Stratosphere Hotel! This time I was awaken by thunder at midnight and dashed out to my balcony on the 6th floor of the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina hotel . Most of the lightning was striking beyond my view on the other side of the hotel. I set my camera to manual mode with the shutter at 3 seconds and aperture to f/5.6. The lens was set to manual focus at infinity. Then with the lens perched on the balcony railing of my 6th floor room and a wadded up towel as makeshift tripod, I began to fire off a shot every 3 seconds. Finally, after 145 photos my patience paid off with a lightning strike within my field of view!

Photo Info: Canon 1D Mark II, Manual Exposure Mode, 2.5 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, Canon EF 16-35mm @ 28mm