Lightning is shifty, won't say 'cheese' to camera

I used the sunset as a backdrop for the star of my photograph, the lightning. Unfortunately, the lightning wouldn't cooperate and never really stood in front of the sunset. So, in this photo, there's only a bit of sunset and some not-too-impressive lightning.

It's getting that time of year again. It's thunderstorm season.

I was eating dinner when I saw that the sky was getting quite dark. The sun was setting at the same time, creating an interesting contrast. Add some lightning, and I've got a pretty good photograph, I thought.

So I ventured out to find such a scene.

I came upon a fence-lined farm on Turtle Mound Road in Melbourne.

I set up my tripod along the road at the same time a car was pulling into a nearby driveway. Its occupants must have been suspicious and called the cops. A sheriff's cruiser showed up minutes later. But the deputy just flipped a U-turn and left. I must have looked credible.

The lightning was a bit difficult to work with. It was here one minute, then there the next. I tried giving it a hot dog because that's what my father does when he's trying to take portraits of dogs.

But the lightning didn't even sniff it, probably because it wasn't kosher.

I varied my exposures from two seconds to 15 seconds, but no matter the length, I was either wiping the raindrops off my lens or adjusting my tripod when the good lightning showed up.

From Turtle Mound, I went to the Eau Gallie Causeway. In the 20 minutes that I stood on a dock over the Indian River, there was one good chain of lightning. And this time, I actually caught it on camera. But it was way too overexposed.

Figures.