When I was younger, thunderstorms seemed to be a way more frequent occurrence. Much to my parents surprise, I was never scared of all the new (to me) loud noises and flashes of light. Instead, they'd often find me running to the nearest window to watch this spectacle of nature unfold outside. Now that I'm 28, not much has changed - I still find myself watching storms roll over, albeit from a very different vantage point, and usually with my camera in tow.

Therefore, it's not difficult to guess what I did last night as soon as I heard the first crackle of thunder erupt.

Presenting, the only decent photo from the night.

This was the second thunderstorm of the day, with the first one taking place earlier in the afternoon - and therefore not worth trying to photograph. It was hard to pinpoint exactly where the eye of the storm was, as I could hear echoes coming from every direction, so shooting would be a regular storm past time - a hit-and-miss occasion.

After a few minutes of watching, I decided to stop trying to predict where the main action was, and just pointed the 6D in a westerly direction off my balcony. Exposure set (I hope), remote in hand - it was time to start shooting and hope for the best.

As impressive as that bolt looks, it clearly had no intentions of being in my frame.

I've lived in this "new" property for nearly a year now, after buying it a while ago and just being too lazy to actually move in. During the course of this first year, this storm has been the only one that actually offered a photographic opportunity. I should add that I shot these photos facing inland, and storms in this city traditionally come from over the ocean, which I sadly don't have a view of.

The excitement slowly dwindled away as it became clear that the epic lightning shot I had in my head wasn't going to happen. With a very low cloud cover, most of the lightning was hidden away in the distance, or just mere flashes in the clouds - no actual bolts.

No lightning here, but we have to take the good with the bad.

I decided to wait another 10 minutes, just in case mother nature decided to send round three my way. Sadly, that didn't happen, and I trudged back inside after nearly 40 minutes of waiting and watching. Annoying, round three eventually did arrive, with another huge storm passing over at 2am. It did wake me up, but wasn't enough to drag me from the warm cocoon of bed to try and shoot it again.

One decent photo? Out of 40 minutes of shooting? Yeah... we can't win all the time. Still, one photo is better than no photos. Bring on summer!

And yes, my post title is a blatant AC/DC reference.

Equipment Setup

DISCLAIMER: All images and writing are my own original work