Surprise Chicago Lightning Shot

A friend and I went to Chicago in May 2018 for a work conference. I of course have to take my camera any time I travel. I have a variety of night shots from the city of Chicago, but I didn't have anything along the Chicago River at night so that was my main goal.

When we first arrived in the evening, we stopped to eat on Navy Pier. After eating we started our walk to the Lake Shore Drive Bridge over the Chicago River and it started lightning. I was so excited. We pulled up the radar and noticed a large storm just minutes away. I didn't want to miss my chance to not only photograph a night shot along the river, but to also get lightning with the scenery.

We quickly made our way to the bridge and I started taking photos. The bridge vibrates anytime a car drives by so I couldn't do the typical long exposure you need to do to capture lightning so I had to do short long exposures and time it with the traffic which was a challenge getting the lightning to happen at the right time.

My friend kept wanting to leave, which was understandable since we were on a metal bridge, but I had to capture that once in a lifetime shot. After taking many shots, I finally captured this stunning beauty!

Then the rain came. It was blowing so hard, it was coming under the bridge so we had to get out of there. We got to a somewhat dry area and tried to weigh out the storm but according to the radar it was only going to get worse and was going to last a while. I put all of my equipment in my camera backpack, then shielded it with my body, praying my equipment doesn't get wet, while we ran about 3 blocks to where we parked on Navy Pier. We were drenched, and ran through water that went over our ankles, but my equipment stayed dry and I got an even more beautiful shot then I thought I would have. Thank you Lord for providing such a beautiful setting!

To see my shot and other Chicago images, click here: Chicago Photo Art Gallery

Do you have a favorite view of Chicago? Feel free to comment below.