Winning explanation
The only person to get it exactly right was Andrew Wright-Broughton of Galveston: “stills from a digital video camera.”
The method
One frame ata time
The process I used to capture these lightning strikes in still photographs was actually quite simple. I set up my high-resolution digital video camera and recorded about 15 minutes of continuous video, repositioning the camera as I could see the storm shifting.
- Step 1Record the storm continuously
- Step 2Review the video in iMovie
- Step 3Save each bolt as a still frame
The video recorded 30 frames per second. After loading it into iMovie on the Macintosh, it was easy to find the exact frames in which the lightning bolts appeared and capture each one as a still photograph.
Each frame represented 1/30th of a second—fast enough to capture a lightning bolt.
Explanations from visitors
The guesses submitted by website readers
Most interesting explanation
Professor Roger Parks of Indiana University proposed:
“The camera changes focal point every N minutes within a relatively small arc—but then how is it triggered fast enough to catch a lightning strike? Yo no sé—my digital camera sure does not fire fast enough!”
Roger was one of my fraternity brothers from M.I.T., and you can certainly see his engineering education at work here.
First runner-up
Dr. Richard Alexander, our neighbor at Pirates Beach, guessed:
“I am guessing you asked the neighbor across the street to go out and fly a kite to draw the action closer to get the shots.”
Second runner-up
Chris Sanders of Houston offered:
“You can set your camera on some setting that detects the light and it takes the photo of the lightning at just the right time.”
Thanks for the guesses
Thanks to everyone who sent in an explanation. I hope you enjoyed the photographs.