TinyUFB
11-10-2005, 11:06 AM
Ever see a photo like this?
I don't know if the guy who took this picture even knows what he photographed. I bet you don't either. Did two parallel lightning bolts hit that oil platform? Yes and no.
When lightning strikes it sends multiple bolts down the same ionized path. It is never one stroke though it happens so fast we think it is. But if the camera is moving rapidly during the photo you can capture each individual stroke that makes up the bolt. That's what happened here. The exposure is quite long as shown by the lights on the oil platform making S shaped curves. Note it stopped at one point where the direction reversed.
We see this as a bright spot at the right had point of the S curves that aren't over exposed. When it stopped the main bolt happened to hit making the bright strike on the left. It is really many strokes but we see only one. The guy, startled jerked the camera and caught the last of the strikes well right of the multiple strikes. The fact each curve on the left is reproduced on the right shows this effect.
I don't know if the guy who took this picture even knows what he photographed. I bet you don't either. Did two parallel lightning bolts hit that oil platform? Yes and no.
When lightning strikes it sends multiple bolts down the same ionized path. It is never one stroke though it happens so fast we think it is. But if the camera is moving rapidly during the photo you can capture each individual stroke that makes up the bolt. That's what happened here. The exposure is quite long as shown by the lights on the oil platform making S shaped curves. Note it stopped at one point where the direction reversed.
We see this as a bright spot at the right had point of the S curves that aren't over exposed. When it stopped the main bolt happened to hit making the bright strike on the left. It is really many strokes but we see only one. The guy, startled jerked the camera and caught the last of the strikes well right of the multiple strikes. The fact each curve on the left is reproduced on the right shows this effect.