Lightning Photography under African Night Skies

As part of my Twitter interview with the

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

tonight at 8pm (GMT +2) / 2pm (ET) I will also be taking questions on some of my

Lightning Photography under African Night Skies

.

You can follow the interview by following @MitchellKrog and @AfricanCosmos on twitter. If you have any questions you’d like to ask tweet them using @AfricanCosmos and the tag #MKAstro.

Below I have selected a few of my all time favorite Lightning Photography under African Night Skies of all time.

ABOVE: Termed the “Killer Storm”. This massive storm cell storm of the 23rd November 2007 caused some serious damage and a few deaths in parts of Johannesburg that evening. This is one of my earlier lightning photograph images but still a big favourite of mine.

ABOVE: “Fire and Ice” is the name I gave to this image and the corresponding set of images taken the same evening and it just stuck. What happened this evening was our first summer thunderstorm rolled in and some lightning strikes started a grass fire. I rushed out with my camera and had about 30 minutes before the rain extinguished the very Fire it had started. This is still my all time fave and this image has circled the globe consistently for the last 5 years. This image was selected as the Viewer Choice with Honorable Mention in the National Geographic Photo Competition. The combination of the orange glow against the clouds caused by the fire and the blue tones from the lightning strikes still awes anyone who sees it.

ABOVE: “Monumental Choas” an image that continues to wow everyone including myself. This evening I had seen an opportunity to capture a massive storm rolling in from the East towards Pretoria. I headed out to the Voortrekker Monument and then waited for the beast to roll in. It did not disappoint and approached just as I had expected eventually coming in right over the Monument eventually throwing three massive strikes.

ABOVE: Lightning Photography Under African Night Skies offers some opportunities for some amazing scenes. On this evening a storm rolled in just after sunset with some of the most amazing swirling billowing cloud shapes.

ABOVE: This panoramic image capturing a multitude of lightning strikes has proven to be a very popular image for a few years now.

ABOVE: Another image from my “Fire and Ice” series. This photo shows a lightning strike on the right of the image going directly into the are where the grass fire was raging. The combination of the orange glow lighting up the clouds and the blue tones from the lightning strikes still awes anyone who sees this image set.

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