Classic Western Storm

Here's a recent summer thunderstorm photo taken from our front yard - this is straight out of the camera, no editing.

I love these Western American skies - you're literally looking through the base of the thunderstorm. And it's my Skywatch Friday entry for the week. And I'm also linking it to ein stück himmel (a piece of heaven).

I often get questions on how I get lightning photos. This one was taken around sunset. I used an ND-4 filter, which simply darkens everything without changing the colors, allowing me to take a longer exposure to increase the chances of capturing a lightning flash (this one was 4 seconds long). I shut the aperture down to f/8.0; I don't normally like such a small aperture on a digital camera because it starts to soften everything, but it allowed a longer exposure which is the key for lightning photos. I live an area where we get frequent thunderstorms. And most importantly, I stayed safe, the storm was further away than it looks.