Lemonade Lightning

interesting ... and maybe a little over the top to my eye! i'd be inclined to be creative with a smaller number of streaks than completely filling the sky! Just my 2c so feel free to ignore completely!

I think you were pretty brave to be out for that many strikes!
Nice detail on the lightning bolts

Thanks for the comments.

Stuart, at one point, I did consider reducing the number of bolts, but I decided to try something a bit extreme. I ended up having two separate images of about 10 strikes per the first time I processed this, but in the end I combined them and stuck with it. I know what you mean though. It's a pretty crazy image.

Richard, I'm not sure brave is the right word. ;] However, I was hiding under cover as the rain was blowing almost sideways during the 30 minutes I was taking these shots.

While a find the foreground a bit too generic, the lighting are well captured. As said before, maybe there are a little too much of them. Sometimes less is more.

I like the number of strikes. You have spaced them apart to make an interesting pattern. The middle/foreground is a bit of a jumble for me. Lots of potential with the streaky lights and repeating shapes of the buildings, but these elements appear a bit jammed together with the overlap here.

Thanks again for the feedback, and all are valid points.

Andreas, while the foreground may appear generic, this is what most of the base looks like. It was also the only place I was able to keep my lens from getting splattered by the blowing rain. I was jammed into the corner of an unoccupied wooden bus stop. There are some locations here I would have preferred shooting at, but I would most likely have had my camera and gear seized by overzealous security forces.

Samantha, the lightning pretty much did this on it's own as the storm moved from the right to the left of the image over about half an hour or so. I merely blended that half an hour into one image. As for the clutter, it is quite a mess, no doubt, but I wanted to convey the shear chaos this place seems to be sometimes. And it's really the only open place I was able to shoot without getting into trouble. Making the most of a limited opportunity I suppose. There are lightning storms here maybe twice a year.

I plan on trying this method on some wide open mountain and prairie scenes when I return home in a couple of months so the photos I share then will most likely be far less cluttered. Thanks again!

That's insane! It looks like a scene in some kind of sci-fi movie. Great shot!