Jul 10, 2018 5:58 PM

Flash Photography

Shooting an electrical storm isn't easy—but one photographer has it down to a science.

Jason Weingart
01
Lightning travels at speeds of up to 200 million miles per hour. It comes, quite literally, in a flash and often disappears before you can reach for your camera.\ \ **Weston, Missouri**
Jason Weingart
02
That makes it hard to photograph unless you’re a pro like Jason Weingart. He's mastered the art of shooting lightning while tailing storms in more than a dozen states, from Texas to Wyoming. "If it's flashing, I'm on it," he says.\ \ **Monument Valley, Arizona**

Jason Weingart
03
He snapped his first lightning photo at Daytona Beach, in 2009. He hadn't planned it—the lightning bolt just shot into the frame—but he was hooked. "I became addicted and put everything else to the side," he says.\ \ **Safford, Arizona**
Jason Weingart
04
Thousands of storms later, he's nailed down his technique. He and his partner in chasing and life, Savannah Weingart, hit the road from their home in Austin every spring to track storms and shoot photos.\ \ **US-Mexico border**

Jason Weingart
05
Usually by the time the couple arrives, lightning is already cracking across the sky. "I've had my hair stand on end on a couple of occasions," Weingart says. “It means you're standing in a charged area, which is the first step to having a lightning strike initiate.”\ \ **Riviera Beach, Florida**
Jason Weingart
06
He mounts his Canon 6D on a tripod, shooting as the storm rolls towards him. When it's broad daylight, he hooks his camera up to a lightning trigger that trips the shutter when it senses a flash. In lower light, he relies on an intervalometer that activates a sequence of photos.\ \ **Benson, Arizona**

Jason Weingart
07
Weingart takes long exposures, sometimes keeping the shutter open more than 10 seconds to capture a lightning bolt's entire zigzagging trajectory. Later in Photoshop, he tweaks the images, stacking up as many as 200 from the same location to show multiple lightning flashes over time.\ \ **Bruceville-Eddy, Texas**
Jason Weingart
08
Weingart can't really explain why he does it, but his photographs do the talking. They're awesome in the truest sense of the word, capturing the dangerous power and beauty of lightning so you don't have to.\ \ **Brenham, Texas**

Laura Mallonee is a writer for WIRED covering photography. ... Read More

Contributor

TopicsAMP Stories Photography

These Surreal Portraits Are Like Mathematical Puzzles

Kensuke Koike adds nothing and takes away nothing from the portraits he alters—just rearranges the parts.

Laura Mallonee

Shining a Light on America’s Prisons—and the Lives Inside

Stephen Tourlentes has spent more than two decades photographing the bright glow of prisons on the periphery of society.

Laura Mallonee

Space Photos of the Week: Gaia Tallies Up Our Milky Way

The European Space Agency's craft has already has catalogued more than 1 billion stars.

Shannon Stirone

Ominous Views of Japan's New Concrete Seawalls

Can these 41-foot-high walls protect the country from another tsunami?

Michael Hardy

These Celebrity Portraits Are Fake. Sort of

The photographs of Britney Spears, Donald Trump, and others aren't what they seem.

Michael Hardy

France Had Never Seen a ‘Fire Cloud’ Until This Month’s Record-Smashing Blazes

Extreme fire conditions on the ground have created unprecedented conditions in the atmosphere.

Brian Kahn

Limited Time: TurboTax Coupons Full Service This August 2026

Tax season doesn’t have to be stressful. Score 10% off full service expert on federal tax filings and more exclusive TurboTax discount codes on WIRED.

Molly Higgins