Closeup Lightning Photo No Hoax

I published an entry earlier this year entitled "Weather Photos: Fact or Fiction". This entry took famous Internet weather photos and busted myths about their authenticity, location or date. One that I did not include was this amazing closeup photo of a lightning strike by Kane Quinnell of Australia (due to copyright issues, we can't show the photo on this blog).

RANDOM LIGHTNING PHOTOS FROM OUR GALLERY (RELOAD FOR MORE)

Although several websites carried Kane's photo earlier this year, none carried any interview with the photographer, who had no website. But the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia recently contacted him to ask for permission to publish his photo in their yearly calendar. This sparked a media frenzy of which this article is an example. Mr. Quinnel is quoted as saying that he had a new camera and was hoping to snap a shot of lightning with 4-second exposure. He did, on his 4th try and it is one of, possibly the closest photo ever taken of a lightning strike.