Momentum

Taken out at the Bald Hill Opal Field, Lightning Ridge N.S.W. 8:15pm EDST. 11.2.13.

This storm cell took a rather nasty turn quite rapidly. Just as I suspected it would skirt town to the East, it decided to build and push toward my location here out on the Northern edge of town. Initially I was set up on top of the hill here around twenty metres above the surrounding plains. Just as I was settling in for a few nice shots I had an unexpected rogue lightning bolt arc down only a short distance behind me here with a deafening crack. I actually felt the heat from that strike.
I caught the top of that close bolt in a photo. Now even though it was not raining at all where I was positioned, bolts were still arcing out around 20-25k's from the main cell in all directions making it an extremely bad and highly dangerous scenario for photography. The things we'll do for a nice photo...

So as you can see from the low position of this shot I rapidly moved down off the hill and headed down onto lower ground (about six metres lower than my previous position) for safeties sake. The rain started about two minutes after this and I had to call it a night after waiting around for a break for a bit over an hour. Lightning was very frequent with about eight storms visible in all directions.

EXIF:
Canon 5D MkIII
10seconds
ISO160
f/11
Canon 16-35mm f2.8L II USM Lens
16mm @ Infinity Focus