Stunning, Breathtaking Lightning Photography (South Africa)

These awesome photos were taken by Alexius van der Westhuizen

He overlayed the strikes in his photos. But, majority of the strikes in the first photo happened within 10 minutes over our area.











Absolutely beautiful.

Now they .. Are some cracking photos. That's all I've got to say .. Oh and looks like I have a new background for my phone. Thanks for posting

Makes my avatar pic look bad..lol but I caught my single lighting bolt with my phone taking one pic at a time till I got lucky.

a reply to: JHumm

I know that feeling. I love taking photos of storms, and one of my photos, which i am quite "proud" of, makes me sad when looking at these at the top.

My pic.


But, it is the strikes which we caught ourselves, and that counts

originally posted by: JHumm
Makes my avatar pic look bad..lol but I caught my single lighting bolt with my phone taking one pic at a time till I got lucky.

Well yours is way better i believe. Those from the OP are just over the top looking like a cartoon image which takes away the feeling of it being real.
And you caught it with a phone!not some fancy new tech camera with light detection sensors and what not.

(forgot to mention your phone is probably also fancy tech but hey, you get my point

a reply to: KaelemJames

Lightning is natures fireworks-I love it.

Last year a lightning bolt hit not far from where I live and I looked directly at it-and for hours afterwards I had a headache and it hurt every time I blinked.

Sprite lightning is even more beautiful; until a few years back no one knew it even existed and only a few people have had the privilege of capturing it first hand-it only occurs in the highest levels in the atmosphere and can be too quick for the human eye to process.



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Amazing pics. Truly great images.

a reply to: KaelemJames

WOW!!!!!!!!!

Super Amazing!!!!

Those are pretty, but I'm not too fond of "stacked" lightning shots. They never seem too genuine to me, just embellished. Kind of like when someone tweaks the crap out of a nice nature photo and goes off the deep end with the color saturation or tint (or both)

For what it's worth, here's one I snagged a year or two ago. Florida thunderstorm it's finest, and I got lucky with my timing after god knows how many pictures trying.

a reply to: Nyiah

A lovely catch!

I understand that stacked strikes may not be everyone's cup of tea. I love the first pic as the majority of those strikes were taken in a 10 minute bracket. To see that storm as "one" is amazing. Maybe because those strikes were right above me, in the suburb where I live.

That night I took some pics but the rain gave me no choice but to move inside. At least I got some shots. You catch a strike, then curiosity gets the best of you, you wanna have a look how it came out, and bam! ..while looking at the pic a major one hits and I miss it. I never learn my lesson to have patience.

originally posted by: KaelemJames
a reply to: JHumm

I know that feeling. I love taking photos of storms, and one of my photos, which i am quite "proud" of, makes me sad when looking at these at the top.

My pic.

But, it is the strikes which we caught ourselves, and that counts

Awesome pic, I hope to get more this year when spring finally gets here.

originally posted by: intergalactic fire

originally posted by: JHumm
Makes my avatar pic look bad..lol but I caught my single lighting bolt with my phone taking one pic at a time till I got lucky.

Well yours is way better i believe. Those from the OP are just over the top looking like a cartoon image which takes away the feeling of it being real.
And you caught it with a phone!not some fancy new tech camera with light detection sensors and what not.

(forgot to mention your phone is probably also fancy tech but hey, you get my point

Thank you

originally posted by: Nyiah
Those are pretty, but I'm not too fond of "stacked" lightning shots. They never seem too genuine to me, just embellished. Kind of like when someone tweaks the crap out of a nice nature photo and goes off the deep end with the color saturation or tint (or both)

For what it's worth, here's one I snagged a year or two ago. Florida thunderstorm it's finest, and I got lucky with my timing after god knows how many pictures trying.

,I don't care for the stacked time lapse pictures either. Your pic is awesome, I hope I can catch one like that this year.

a reply to: KaelemJames

I like your picture better, awesome perspective also. I`m just one of those guys who doesn`t like tampering with the original Not saying I don`t like art, but that`s all that is...loses its charm if you know what I mean. S+F for posting it.

Criticism from an artistic stand point aside,

I think the overlay approach really helps demonstrate the science of the lightening. One strike looks cool but once you can see the total discharge in a given area over a few minutes, it really helps understand what is going on.

Thanks for posting

a reply to: Op3nM1nd3d

Thank you! A couple years later!

I appreciate your honest, and honest opinion. It's been hard to 'argue' to say!

a reply to: Op3nM1nd3d

You're the