Color photo. The downtown Seattle skyline, seen from Gas Works Park on the north end of Lake Union. Night. The buildings are a patchwork of lit windows. The scene is lit purple by a lightning bolt on the far right of the frame, striking something just to the left of the Space Needle.

Thunderstorms are a rarity here in the Seattle area so, when I read that we were expected to get some significant activity tonight, I started keeping an eye on lightningmaps.org. When the leading edge of the strikes reached Tacoma, I jumped in the Jeep and headed to Gas Works Park, set up the camera and tripod under an awning, and waited. I dialed in settings that would let me do 5 or 10 second exposures, kept hitting the shutter, and hoped to get lucky.

I did.

Gear: Nikon Z7 II, Nikon AF-S 50mm f1.4G