Last week, New York City got an epic lightning storm. Luckily I was somewhat free that day so I decided to ride my bike into the city as I usually would. I was trying to delay my ferry ride back to Staten Island because I knew something big was coming in the distance. Towards New Jersey there were dark clouds coming, then came the lightning. I knew that was the perfect time to jump on the ferry and try to get a skyline lightning shot.
Normally, the best way to capture lightning photographs would be to use a tripod and a long exposure since it's nearly impossible to capture a lightning strike manually. I tried my best and figured if I used the 5-axis built in image stabilizer on the Sony A7RII, that I could shoot with a slower shutter speed considering I was on a rocking boat. I was shooting at 1/50 of a second and firing off bursts every few seconds. I must have taken close to 50 shots within a couple of minutes and got 1 decent lightning shot and 1 ok one that I'll post on my Instagram another day.
You can't see lighting bolts but I still got this unique shot of the downtown skyline with a burst of light behind it that you never get to see normally from this perspective. It's tack sharp and I feel like this isn't something I would've been able to achieve without the 5-axis stabilizer of the new Sony cameras.
Sony A7RII, Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 (iso1600, f/2.8, 1/50s)