Photography Causes Sleep Deprivation

Photography causes sleep deprivation - news at 11.

:) Actually, my love of thunderstorms and subsequent desire to capture the all elusive lightening bolt on film (thanks to my new hobby) causes sleep deprivation, at least when a t-storm rolls in late at night when I'm about ready for bed.

I tried to snap some lightening last night. No, I don't have a tripod yet (well, I didn't as of last night! I picked up a cheap one on sale at Best Buy today, until I get my dream tripod from B&H Photo), and no, the shutter release cable I ordered hasn't arrived yet, but that didn't stop me from trying! There wasn't much streaky cloud-to-ground lightning going on last night, though, and I don't think I caught any. I haven't pulled the images off the memory card yet, but I'm pretty sure I hit an oh-fer last night.

I did, however, find some good resources on photographing lightning, for the next time I try!

How to Take Lightning Photos by Matthew Cole - there were a lot of lightning photography how-to's out there, but for some reason I found this one the most helpful. Maybe because his explanation of the process and f/stop explanations made the most sense to me?

Lightning Probability Radar - a map from the National Weather Service (USA) showing the probability of lightning strikes over 3 hour time blocks. Go find a storm!

Current National Radar (USA) - found this link in Cole's article. I like it because it's simple, easy to read, and easy to zoom in on your area (just click the map).

I read a lot of other articles, but didn't bookmark any. Most sites were specific to how to photograph lightning with a film camera. I'd love to find some information specific to digital SLR's. If you know of any good sites for tips on how to photograph lightning, let me know!