Lightning Photography: 7 Strikes from Ikaria to Eyjafjallajökull and Paris

Lightning lasts a fraction of a second, but a camera on a tripod can hold it still. These seven photographs catch it at two erupting volcanoes, over a Greek island, above the Grand Canyon and around three of the most recognisable structures on Earth: the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and San Francisco's Bay Bridge.

1. Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland: lightning in an ash plume

Eyjafjallajökull is one of Iceland's smaller ice caps, in the far south of the island, with a volcano whose caldera rises to 1,666 metres. Its 2010 eruption began on 20 March, and on 14 April an explosive second phase broke out beneath about 200 metres of glacier ice. Meltwater made the blasts more violent, and the ash cloud closed most of Europe's airspace from 15 to 20 April. Around 20 countries shut their skies to jets and some 10 million travellers were affected, the worst disruption to air travel since the Second World War.

The lightning in Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson's photograph is volcanic lightning, sometimes called a "dirty thunderstorm". Ash, rock fragments and ice crash into each other inside the rising plume and build up static charge, much as ice and hail do in an ordinary thundercloud. When enough charge separates, the air breaks down and lightning flashes through the ash. The phenomenon is old news to science: Pliny the Younger described "the transient blaze of lightning" during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

2. The Statue of Liberty, New York

Jay Fine's shot pairs a bolt with the statue on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Tall, isolated structures standing above open water are natural targets for strikes, which is why the statue appears in so many storm photographs. Shots like this are taken from a distance across the water, with the camera shutter left open until a flash arrives.

3. Ikaria, Greece: 70 exposures in one night

The most spectacular sky in the set belongs to the Aegean. Greek photographer Chris Kotsiopoulos made this image at Pezi on the island of Ikaria in the early hours of 16 June 2011, the night of a total lunar eclipse, when a storm moved over the island. From 1:17 to 2:40 a.m. he fired 70 exposures of 20 seconds each from a tripod with a Canon EOS 550D and a 50 mm lens at f/7.1 and ISO 400.

He caught about 90 frames with lightning, set aside some 20 that were overexposed and stacked the rest into one picture covering 83 minutes. He estimates that more than 100 strikes hit that night. The composite shows the storm's whole life in one view, with the hills of Ikaria lit from above. Kotsiopoulos is known for his night-sky and storm work across Greece, from Athens to Kos.

4. The Grand Canyon, Arizona

Sedona photographer Rolf Maeder used a long exposure to gather several bolts above the canyon. Summer is monsoon season in northern Arizona, when afternoon and evening thunderstorms build over the plateau, and the canyon rims are exposed places to be. Photographers work from sheltered viewpoints or vehicles and leave the camera to do the waiting.

5. The Eiffel Tower, Paris

Bertrand Kulik's photograph of a bolt meeting the top of the Eiffel Tower became one of the most shared lightning images online. The wrought-iron tower stands about 330 metres tall with its antennas, by far the highest point in central Paris, which makes it a natural lightning target during summer storms.

6. The Bay Bridge, San Francisco

Thunderstorms are uncommon around San Francisco Bay, which makes this frame special. Phil McGrew took it from inside his apartment, shooting through a rain-streaked window toward the lit-up San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. It is a good reminder that the best seat for storm photography is often indoors.

7. Puyehue, Chile

Chilean photographer Francisco Negroni specialises in his country's volcanoes. This image comes from the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex in southern Chile, which began erupting on 4 June 2011. About 3,500 people were evacuated, the ash column reached about 12,000 metres, and drifting ash closed airports in Bariloche and Neuquén in Argentina and, for a time, as far away as Buenos Aires and Melbourne. Puyehue itself rises to 2,236 metres.

How lightning photos are made

Almost every image here relies on the same technique: a camera on a tripod, a small aperture and an exposure of several seconds or longer, repeated until a bolt crosses the frame. A long exposure can hold more than one flash, and a composite like the Ikaria picture stacks many exposures into one. That is why some photos show far more lightning than anyone sees at a single instant.

Shoot from shelter. Lightning can strike well ahead of a storm, so photographers work from a building or a hard-topped car and wait 30 minutes after the last thunder before going outside.

Explore more: a separately documented lightning incident; Eyjafjallajökull in time-lapse.

Related reading

• Lightning in Slow Motion: Seeing the Flash Develop
• Lightning Safety: Shelter Comes Before Survival Techniques
• A Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Strike Near Darwin
• Farmington’s February 2013 Blizzard in Backyard Time-Lapse
• Twenty Cloud Photographs: Shapes, Light and Atmospheric Features
• Lenticular Clouds: How a Still Shape Can Contain Moving Air

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