Lightning Display Over Zsambek, Hungary
July 14, 2012
Photographer: Tamas Abraham
Summary Author: Tamas Abraham; Jim Foster
The photo above showing an attention-getting lightning display was captured near Zsambek, Hungary on July 5, 2012. Strong storms rolled through this area late in the day (between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.) to break a weeklong siege of hot, dry weather. One cloud-to-ground strike was close enough to startle everyone in my house. A powerful bolt of lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 F (27,800 C). The entire discharge of a flash of lightning takes only about a quarter of a second; however, a flash is composed of several short discharges, each lasting only a millisecond or less.
Photo details: Canon EOS 400D camera; EF-S 18-55 lens; at F5.6; ISO 100;, 8 second exposure; and 18 mm. I took 38 individual photos shooting continuously with these settings and processed them using StarStax software.