I was preparing to go out to attempt to photograph the International Space Station passing overhead when I got the weather alert on my phone of an approaching storm. I looked outside and sure enough, the sky was quickly clouding over, spoiling any chance at seeing the space station transit Florida. I was disappointed, but the growing grumble of thunder in the distance abated my disappointment. Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love thunderstorms... and this one was proving to be ripe with lightning! So, I made lemonade out of lemons.

Instead, I took my gear out to the dock to try to catch some lightning. Typically, Easterly moving storms don't prove to be worth shooting as all the lightning is on the approaching end, not a good vantage point for me on the dock, which has a great westward view. However, this particular storm had a few pop-up cells trailing behind it. I waited until the rain passed and headed out. I watched the sky dance with the glow of all the rain-wrapped strikes, not seeing any distinctive bolts for almost a half hour, then the trailing pop-ups came through for me, fast but furious. They blew threw within a matter of seven minutes. I must have lost a good twenty strikes between changing lenses, but this is what I caught.

I'll catch ISS next time, for now, I'm happy with the lightning.

Lightning on Santa FeA sliver of the sky as a storm passed through on September 12 over Santa Fe Lake. The sky was crawling with lightning. Lightning on Santa FeThe tail end of a rain-wrapped lightning storm on September 12 as it passed over Lake Santa Fe.