City Lights by JayDaley

http://j.mp/1DST0HQ Way back on the 9th January in 2012 I bunkered down at the very scenic Miss Macquaries Chair in the Botanical Gardens of Sydney to try and photograph an electrical storm over the city (see: http://j.mp/1DST0HR...). Weathering the intense storm with my trusty old D3s I was happy with the result, which was indeed my first lightning shot. Almost 3 years later and I was back at the same location with the same hope. A few hours before this image was taken I was having dinner and keeping one eye closely on the radar. From what I could see there was a cell south over Wollongong moving north and a cell west over Campbelltown moving east. Both appeared to be heading for a spectacular rendezvous over the city and if that proved to be true it would make for one hell of a show. So – there I was, back at Miss Macquaries chair in my car reading and waiting. Everything was calm and the park was abuzz with families taking photos and couples enjoying a warm Sydney evening. Then I noticed a faint flash south over the city – that was the Wollongong cell, then a few minutes later a flash on the western horizon of the city – sure enough, that was my Campbeltown cell. Just as I had hoped - both were moving in. Things remained calm for a while before the wind began to pick up and the faint flashes became more frequent and intense. As crowds of people began to flee the park I was happily setting up my tripod. Despite the perfect matrimony of my two cells right above me there appeared to be some low cloud keeping the bolts hidden from view, fortunately this passed and what followed was some of the most intense bolts of lightning I’ve seen in a very long time, if ever. Shooting at 30seconds allowed my camera to capture multiple strikes in single frames and seemingly fade each strike away over the duration of the exposure so as to prevent each one being too prominent or blown. Regardless of that the strike on the right side of this image was simply so close and so big that its magnitude could not be diluted. That particular strike preceded a clap of thunder unlike anything I have ever heard before – it was immediately above me and I literally felt it reverberate through the ground and echo down the harbor. via 500px http://j.mp/1Bh9uKD