Seven Lightning Photographs: Landmarks, Volcanoes and Exposure

1. Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

The opening photograph brings a volcanic plume and branching lightning into the same scene. The eruption supplies a large, changing form, while the electrical discharge appears as a much finer pattern within or around it. Their visual relationship is striking even though a photograph cannot establish every process responsible for charge separation in that particular plume.

2. The Statue of Liberty, New York

Jay Fine’s image places lightning beside a globally recognisable landmark. The statue gives the sky a fixed reference and makes the flash feel connected to a particular city setting. The image draws attention to the contrast between the stable silhouette and the transient branches of light.

3. Ikaria, Greece

Chris Kotsiopoulos’s image combines seventy exposures from a longer session. The many branches therefore represent accumulated moments, not a single instantaneous sky. Identifying it as a composite does not diminish the work. It explains the photographer’s choice to show the scale of an event across time within one finished composition.

4. The Grand Canyon, Arizona

Rolf Maeder’s long exposure gives the canyon and multiple flashes a shared frame. The terrain provides depth and a scale much larger than a city landmark. A long exposure records light over an interval, so it should not automatically be interpreted as the view available to the eye in one fraction of a second.

5. The Eiffel Tower, Paris

Bertrand Kulik’s photograph uses the tower as a clear vertical reference beneath the lightning. Its recognisable form anchors the scene even when much of the surrounding city is dark. The image's strength lies in the relationship between a permanent structure and a fleeting event: the tower stays familiar while the sky changes for an instant.

6. The Bay Bridge, San Francisco

The original account places Phil McGrew inside his apartment, photographing through a rain-covered window. That source detail matters: the image is not evidence that the photographer stood exposed beside the bridge to obtain it. The bridge’s lights and structure provide an urban line beneath the branching sky.

7. Puyehue, Chile

Francisco Negroni’s image returns to volcanic lightning, with bright branches visible against the darker eruption scene. The plume gives the flash a surrounding form and a sense of scale. The photograph records that visual encounter between eruption and electrical activity, while the wider consequences of the event require their own reporting beyond what is visible in the frame.

Read the exposure before comparing the display

The seven photographs involve different settings and recording choices. A composite can combine flashes that occurred separately, while a long exposure gathers light over a longer interval than a brief exposure. Those methods influence how much lightning appears in one image. The visible number of branches therefore describes the photograph as well as the storm, making exposure information essential to a fair comparison.

The landmarks also provide different reference scales: a statue, a tower and a bridge organise a city view, while canyon walls and volcanic plumes place the flash within a much larger natural scene. That change of setting is part of the collection’s variety.