The sky is great and very well captured. I would prefer the shot without the cement factory however. Taking a clear shot of this sky would show nature in its greatness, in my personal opinion. I also like the clarity of the picture. Very well done!

Wonderful shot Joel. I enjoy everything about the shot. I think the factory provides a great anchor by which to judge the vastness of the sky and lightning. I have been trying to find opportunities such as this...I have a couple now. A great addition to the lightning gallery!

The lightning is way cool and an incredible shot. I kind of agree with Katerina, though. It seems that the cement factory is overexposed and therefore looks kinda like a big distracting white blob more than a cement factory. It would have been really cool if you could have got another shot with the cement factory properly exposed and then overlayed that on top of the lightning in Photoshop. I know - hindsight is 20-20.

i agree with the overlayed layer comment, although still i prefer the plant there. this is a neat mix of chain and bolt lightning in many spots of the picture. mind if i ask how many seconds this was exposed for? ISO and apperature if you know too would be interesting. lightning is always challenging to get this iso and apperature correct to expose the lightning, while getting the shutter as long as possible while exposing foreground with ambient light properly.

Thx for all the commens guys... carl, the exposure was 100 iso, 8 seconds, f/5 and it was at 70mm focal length... I would have done the overlay, but when I reallized that I was shooting in jpeg and not raw (which is a very rare thing for me to change), I was very upset, because I could have easily dropped exposure as it wasn't TOO over exposed to correct if it were in raw... again thank you all for your input :)

Great lightning photo. The factory looks like a glowing castle. Which brings up an idea for a collaboration. Lots of people in Europe have posted pictures of ancient castles. Put one of those over the factory, and you've got a magical image!

Oh wow! Wow wow wow! I love lightning pictures, and the cement factory lit up like a christmas tree right there in the center. If not for the crane, I might think this was a fantasy shot of a magical tower in the center of a magnificent city, a beacon against the coming storm! OH Wow! Pictures like this get my creative writing side all revved up. Great Job! Keep up the good work!



P.S. Let me know what yout think of my gallery if you get the chance! Have a good day!

Hmm ... I took some time to read through the preceding comments ... and I am somewhat undecided.

I like the possibility of overlayering another shot of the factory.

And then again, I do agree and respect very much what Darryl said. And echoing some of the words above ... it becomes slightly more of an interpretative image left as is. I, too, thought of an ancient castle and structure when I first saw this in thumnail and even then at full-size.

Either way ... this ... this is quite beautiful. And I think for having been there and capturing one of those rare moments ... deserves high praise. Thank you for sharing this with us. :o)

p.s. +fav ... it's a very powerful image.

this brings to mind an image of a GIGANTIC toddler scribbling on the sky.

Amazing shot, lovely lightning and that factory leaps out at you.