Lightning strike in Paris

Lightning strike in Paris 1

Through a stormy night punctuated by thunder, I took my camera to try to capture a picture of a lightning strike in Paris. Equipped with a Nikon D3200 by that time in kit with its 18-55 mm. I put myself on a friend’s balcony and for half an hour I clicked, missed, tried again and again, until I got this magical moment ! I was thrilled ! I managed to freeze a lightning strike in Paris, captured it in the box!

Dazzling!

That night, the lightning struck a few hundred yards from the Eiffel Tower, that you can see right of the light beam. What struck me was this monstrous gray cloud, full of energy. Discharging a blow on the ground. Evacuating millions of kilowatts in a thousandth of a second.

Accompanied by a thunderclap, this acoustic wave caused by the overheating and the brutal expansion of the air. This dull sound, which arrived to me few seconds after the luminous flash that illuminated all Paris, permeating the sensor of my camera for a beat of lash. I took other photos of a lightning strike in Paris, but this one remains the one that I liked the most.

The rain followed, the storm burst, I feared for my camera so I took shelter in the apartment. Looking at the pictures that I took again and again with a child’s smile, the face lit up by the scenes I had just seen.

Storm-hunter photographers

Later, I inquired about storm-hunter photographers. I read and saw their work. It’s just awesome, maybe someday I’ll get used to it … Someday …

You can see the work of Xavier Delorme, famous photographer of thunderstorms or also go for a ride on Storm Chasers website, or lightning photography to see what was done elsewhere about the topic.