Cotton Coulson is a contributing photographer to National Geographic Traveler and nationalgeographic.com. He is based in Denmark.

There is nothing I like more than shooting in what you might call “real weather.” I always seem to be running out on the ship's deck or onto the street in the rain, sleet, and wind when everyone else is running for cover. Why is this? Because I know from years of experience that this is when the light really gets dramatic, the skies can open up with shafts of sunlight and dramatic dark clouds, and I can create photos with emotion and energy. Wind, snow, rain, and fog—I love all the weather elements. They add texture and dimension to photography. For all practical purposes, I like to keep my shooting gear very simple, minimizing the fuss and not getting tangled up in a bunch of photo accessories.

Lightning

This photo, taken in Kansas, was one that I spent months pursuing for a magazine article. It ended up as the lead picture. When shooting storms and lightning, you never know when and where they’ll appear next, so you have to have patience as well as luck.

To shoot a successful lightening photo you need to set your camera on a tripod and set the mode to manual. You might also want to enable the mirror lock-up function and use a cable release to minimize camera shake. Adjust the f-stop to 8 or 11 to insure your exposure is between 5 and 30 seconds, since you want to open the shutter and wait for the lightning bolts to appear in the sky. Since I never know where in the frame they’ll appear, I suggest you focus manually on infinity and include a lot of sky in your composition.

In this case, it was a blessing that it was late in the day when the storm was approaching, allowing for the lightning bolt to standout against the dark and ominous clouds. As a final tip, be sure not to stand under trees or near metal poles for safety reasons. —Cotton Coulson

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