Storm Australian Severe Weather Forum
Severe Weather Discussion => General Weather - all topics not current severe weather. => Topic started by: Jimmy Deguara on 18 March 2007, 01:39:23 AM
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Here is the image. First the full size image, then just the left hand side cropped and lastly the suspect area zoomed in. Now I know that pretty much nobody will be able to say for sure what it is but note that if it was a reflection, it seems to stop abruptly at it's brightest point before the edge of the frame and the structure of the lightning that is visable doesn't resmble the suspect area in the slightest.
(http://www.stormtestdummy.com/chase%20reports/2007/070304/images/20070304_082.jpg)
(http://www.stormtestdummy.com/chase%20reports/2007/070304/images/20070304_082 cropped.jpg)
(http://www.stormtestdummy.com/chase%20reports/2007/070304/images/20070304_082 zoomed.jpg)
Jeff.
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Hi Jeff,
Pardon my possible scepticism, although I am not sure, but I am thinking this may be a good example of reflection due to the picture being taken with an angled windscreen as you had suggested. We certainly cannot rule out the 3D lightning properties reflection. If this is the case, you have exposed a 3D effect of that particular lightning which is obviously unique and you would not have been able to do with the single image itself.
You suggested that internal reflection effects occur with video cameras which is absolutely correct. The variable that required to be non-existent was the windscreen. Internal reflection on video effects tend to be aligned in a similar orientation though somewhat displaced. The above example, if it was a reflection is in line with an angle reflection consistent with the angled orientation of the windscreen.
Any other thoughts?
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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I was lead to believe though that the effect that occurs specifically with video cameras is caused by ghosting within the camera itself and not due to an angled sheet of glass in front of it. That effect is as far as I know unique to video cameras and slr's have never as far as I know had the same problem. Also note that my Rav-4 has a very flatly angled windscreen and I was point the slr up at the time so the glass in front of the camera is not really angled that much at all.
I have shot a lot of cg's through my windscreen and this is the first time i've ever seen something like what's present in the photos above. The photo below was the image before and the cg in it struck about 500m away just over the hill.
(http://www.stormtestdummy.com/chase%20reports/2007/070304/images/20070304_081.jpg)
Jeff.
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Jimmy, maybe you could suss out some examples of video reflections to compare to the images above?
Jeff.
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Jeff, well here's my two-bob's worth.
Either it's a reflection off the main exit point from the top of the CG that has actually gone over your car also and out of your view and the camera has captured it from the bottom of the windscreen inverted. The main stroke obviously goes out of sight over the top of you and the windscreen would have gotten the reflecton, as the bottom of the glass would be angled towards the rear view of your roof anyway.
The other theory is that you have in fact gotten what I view as 'incomplete leader vein that is heading for your car. If you look closely you can see 2 leader veins along the top dissappearing into the background and at the very top of the faint line at the LHS it is actually heading toward or coming from the main branching toward the bottom.
I'm not an expert but my money is the latter. If you were ever close to being struck then this would be it and you've captured a path in which the strike did follow through on...mmm I reckon you've caught something very, very rare and probably you'd be nanoseconds from the car being hit - it does look like it gets more in focus the closer it gets to you...
Would you mind if i emailed the photo to a meteorologist friend for his interpretation?
Mike
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Hi Jeff,
I guess you were there are the time and I was trying to act upon the information provided and provide a possibility of how features can occur. I agree and perhaps did not explain the fact that video camera "ghost" image is not what I was suggesting here. However, is it impossible to have internal reflection within the digital camera itself?
To me the feature does in fact looks remarkably similar in length and approximately in structure given the change in orientation. There was rain falling at the time so water film on the windscreen can indeed introduce some refraction. What makes my "possible" explanation at least something to condisider is the fact that the lightning was more overhead. Was it perhaps a reflection off the bonnet to the window and lens? You were pointing either more downwards or had a wider angle setting. There are far more variables to consider and given I was not there makes it difficult to make sense out of it all.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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I also believe its a out of position image caused by the camera I get them regularly when doing
lightning shots. some times.... not always you can see the true position of that strike on a
preceeding or later frame let me post a few examples.
I see it so often now on my pics and other peoples pics it has made me well aware that it is
a artifact created by the imaging system of the various cameras.
many of them look as tho they are within a few, 1 - 5, metres of me and it happens regardless of
if I'm shooting through a window (eg car) or if I'm outside.
Wished I had got the true image of this part of the multipulse strike ... look at the fine filament
(branches) coming off it ... they werent visible in the subsequent frames
(http://www.sydneystormcity.com/051122 (2405a) Hoxton Prk.jpg)
and
(http://www.sydneystormcity.com/051122 (2405f) Hoxton Prk.jpg)
and
(http://www.sydneystormcity.com/051126 (2525b) way home frm Orange.jpg)
and The red coloured long close strike is a "fore-image" of the main strike a couple of frames later
which was really several km away
(http://www.sydneystormcity.com/070210 (5687) Appin area01.jpg)
(http://www.sydneystormcity.com/070210 (5687) Appin area12.jpg)
and finally
(http://www.sydneystormcity.com/070304 (2803) Hoxton Prk maj cg08.jpg)
you can see that the foreground strike has the same path shape as the true strike further away
the main strike was still close !!! within 1 km approx
cheers
Dave N
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It seems to be more prevalent with CCD imaging chips rather than with CMOS chips.
It isn't visible light reflections within the camera, rather that the image is .... for want of a
better word .... bled back onto previous frames of the CCD chip prior to that frame being stored.
I have had it explained better to me .... hopefully you get the idea :)
the image is usually shifted out of place, horizontally or vertically but sometimes can be rotated.
I have yet to see it when doing still pix, only when I have been doing movies.
cheers
Dave N
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I still don't think it's a reflection of the main in picture strike. Does not look anything like the one in the photo. The 'ghost' or whatever it has a lot more twisting to it. A reflection off the bonnet? Nope I have serious doubts about that.
I'm of the view that if it is a reflection, it's from the unseen branching over the top of the car (if there was one) but like i said, the whole strike is not in the picture, the reflection through the windscreen would have picked that up for sure.
I've taken the trouble to draw the 'ghost' and overlayed it onto the screen to see if it is similar. I've inverted, twisted, stuck it on sideways and that 'ghost' is not the original strike in the photo. theres just too many twists in the 'ghost', whereas the main pic is more defined and clean.
Mike
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Mike,
I did suggest that there could have been something above the car as well. But as to almost being in the position to striking the car - not so.
You could be correct in regards to the reflection not breing the visible strike. I was trying to imagine a distortion based on a curved surface and a 3D tranformation rather than 2D.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Oh no dramas with that, Jimmy. Pity there was not more in the shot! It's a good topic as I still have the drawing over the screen as I type - it's one of those things that you just have to nut out even if it kills you! Still got me miffed though. Even though the camera may have taken a reflection - just does not seem right for some reason.
The colour of it would be the same definition would it not if it was a reflection? If it's from the branching at the top, that's pretty well illuminated, so unless his windscreen is tinted (which i doubt) why is it dull? If the branching at the top has kept its same thickness for part of the way which is out of shot, then why is the 'reflection' not reflecting that also? You can see three faint veins running off the 'reflection' and the end one extends back toward the CGs tail - surely if it was a path that the current was taking but was an incomplete connection then what is captured is just that, no?
If we excluded the option of a reflection, then what other explanations we can deduce!
(jump in anyone else!!!)
Mike
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Dave,
This image was not shot with viedo. It is a still image taken with an slr (with a cmos sensor). the image reflection problem that occurs with digital has never in my knowledge been atributed also to slr's. Jimmy, even if you there you wouldn't be able to figure it out any easier. It happened instantaniously. The thunder was instant. The branching you see in the lightning above the ground is I believe very very close to me and could have been the main stroke if it had grounded first.
My reasons for believing it is is firstly it starts inside the edge of the camera frame, very unlikely with a mere reflection. secondly it's brighter at the ground and gets progresively weaker in intensity as it rises. Thirdly it doesn't resemble the branching above in any way. fourth, i've never heard or seen a reflection from a bonnet display so clearly in a photo like that. Fifth, it is realatively weak in illuminosity which would match the nature of a filament.
Jeff.
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I do recall that Nick recently shot a very close cg through a windscreen in rain. Perhaps we can find where it is again and paste it here?
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I found the shot by Nick Moir that he took this year of a very close cg through a windscreen or window with rain on it. Here it is.
Shot copyright of N.Moir.
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Hello Jeff. I still stand with my view that it's not a reflection - could be totally wrong - but it is electricity we're talking about!
PS - what's a cmos sensor?
Mike
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Hey Dave, Jeepers a few problems with the internals of your camera? Is the mirror inside loose? The captures by the camera seem to be way off timing (not by you, but the camera shutter?) - glad to here it's not always though!
Mike
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Hi Jeff et al,
I would like you all to download and play this piece of video from the 2001 Derecho event. The lightning hits nearby and was very bright. Note however how there seems to be reflections of the bolt further ahead!
http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/movies/2001/0527jd10.wmv
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Hi guys,
I have experienced these "artifacts" in my video before and have shown them to Michael Bath a few times and he told me to post one of the images. I believe they are positive or step streamers that have not connected to the step leaders. I have seen them in almost every active daylight storm we've got on video. I have clearly noticed them appearing like a "pink camera flash" even with my eyes, they also have a strange warm sensation when around. Russell (my lightning photographer partner in crime) and I have both shot day storms with digital video cameras, he uses a relatively old JVC handheld DV and I use my Nikon8700 in video mode. His camera does not pick them up at strangely enough? We thought the infra-red capabilities of some cameras might be a little greater than others and so making it easier to pick the streamers up? The image here is a composite of 5 frames overlayed and shot in Russell's back yard. Lightning Ridge, NSW. I did see the main leader coming off the fence quite clearly and can assure you it was no camera artifact! ; )
(http://www.ridgelightning.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=990&g2_serialNumber=2)
Cheers guys.
Shaun.
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G'day Shaun.
Certainly a inquistive photo you have there. Electrical discharges are one of those things that baffles even the experts. So much so experts still don't know 'why' it does what it does. That's a fact!
did you experience any buzzing in the air, any peculiar cracks of thunder or what did you hear if anything when you took the shot?
The plot thickens!
Mike
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Hey Dave, Jeepers a few problems with the internals of your camera? Is the mirror inside loose? The captures by the camera seem to be way off timing (not by you, but the camera shutter?) - glad to here it's not always though!
Mike
No nothing wrong with either camera Mike, both of them are in good working order :)
as commented its just a artifact thing produced by digital still cameras, USUALLY only during video mode or digital
movie cameras at any time
Hmmmmm dunno Shaun, still have my doubts .... If those of yours really were streamers that would be pretty cool
If your did feel those effects then in that case you really mite have struck it lucky, I cant argue with that :)
I would still like to see other frames of your video following the frame you have shown, individually ... not overlain
Am always open to any possibility .... after all its a weird world out there when dealing with mother nature :)
Cheers
Dave N
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G'day and thanks for your questions guys. Mike, the warmness I have felt from the streamers is a very strange sensation indeed but I don't recall hearing any buzzing while taking this video footage (from the image above in Russ' backyard) as it was hailing at the time, it could well have been though? A good friend of mine has experienced that while out photographing a storm in Albury, NSW quite recently, telling me that a street sign behind him was buzzing fairly loudly but it wasn't hit (lucky for him!), I could tell you without a doubt if heard an object buzzing while in a storm I don't think I'd hang around lol!
I have shown numerous people these streamers in my front yard during a storm and I can assuredly tell you they are blown away! My father is 70yrs old and even he could see pink flashes as I pointed them out? We were lucky enough to see one during that storm about 3mtrs in front of us and was 4mtrs or so high. It appeared in front of a dark tree so it was easy to spot. One thing I should probably add here is that most of our town is situated on ironstone ridges so that may add to the frequency of them? I can say that the storm doesn't need to be overhead for streamer activity and I find the best times to see them are when the storm cell is about a kilometer or so away, just as long as it's a very active cell.
I did do a few other frame out-takes to send to Michael Bath so I will show you here-
(http://www.ridgelightning.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=997&g2_serialNumber=2)
This image above was the very first couple of positive streamers I captured (at a low resolution unfortunately) in my front yard. The first frame is Russell shooting the storm in the distance. Frame 2 is the first streamer I ever found in footage (bottom left, in front of the jade plant), it is about a metre in front of us (Russ was standing beside me at this point), in the footage I saw the streamer as a pink flash and had asked Russ if his camera flash had gone off accidently, that was the point at which I knew you could see these strange characters! Frame 3 is a pretty large streamer with a step leader (the faint white article at the top) about 8metres away from us! I have to add here that in the actual video Russ had gone out to stand in the street (on my left) to get a clear shot of some nice cg's just as the streamer touched down! I'd hate to think what would've happened if it had arced together and grounded a bolt? The actual strike was some distance to our left and out of the shot. Frame 4 shows how far away the actual active part of the storm cell was.
(http://www.ridgelightning.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=994&g2_serialNumber=2)
This is the only actual frame by frame I have done. I wish I had pointed the camera down a little more? The streamers are numerous here in the bottom right corner of the first frame. The second frame is the distant strike with what I've termed as a "floating streamer" beside it. More streamers again in the third frame of the set (showing up red again in the bottom right corner), then a cg reminant in frame 4. All these frames are at 1/24th of a second and shot in my back yard. I have to apologise for the small size of these images. (I will try and grab a few larger ones for you when I regain my image editing software)
I have caught a recent positive streamer coming from a tree in the distance, possibly as far away as 50mtrs, with a nice step leader reaching towards it, no cg in sight though, only a small crawler? We will post the video's on ridgelightning.com as soon as we can : )
Best reguards,
Shauno.
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Hello Shaun, i'm no expert on lightning (heck we get very little in Melbourne) so I base a lot of my comment on what I can see visually and stick mainly to reading more expert opinions for learning. I must say though, image 2 of your second set of pics looks very clearly to me to be a 'ghost' reproduction of the actual CG. I dont believe it is a 'floating streamer' as you have referred. Its outline can be visually traced as the same shape as the CG but very slightly distorted (I imagine by the curvature of your lens) and less detailed. If you visually lower the ghost over the CG you can see it fits the shape. The other pics however, are intruiging. I too have captured a reflection of a 4 secong pulsing CG in the USA in 2005. I have no doubt it was a reflection in my video camera lens - possibly exacerbated by camera shake during the excitement!
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Brad,
Definitely an artifact in image number 2. As in one of the other images, the video camera finds it difficult to store information given the rapid rate of the lightning. I find it less susceptable in my current 3CCD video camera particularly with the appropriate manual settings.
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara
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Indeed Dave, just a query in case! Have no replies in regards to digital video cameras. Not my forte at the moment! And agree wholly that Mother Nature can give us surprises that sometimes silence the experts! It's just a fact of the life we live in.
Hope the answer comes re this interesting topic!
Mike
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Hi Brad, I must agree with you about the cg artifact in the 2nd frame (I just call them floating streamers for the sake of description I guess?). I don't think it is a result of shaking in my footage though? I think Jimmy has nailed it with the explanation of the CCD capturing fast images and ghosting the cg with fish-eyed effect the lens produces. I have taken many 8second exposures in low light with the camera by hand believe it or not, mostly in those rare desperate times when the tripod wasn't accessable. I've been blessed with having extremely steady hands in a crisis, maybe I should've been a surgeon, the money would certainly be a little better lol?
I wish I could get access to a variety of different DV cameras with different lenses and settings just to test a few of these theories? That might be something to try if a group is together chasing a good storm somewhere? I have read a few scientific articles about streamers but theres still not a lot known. I guess it will become clear with time and study.
This is indeed a perplexing and very interesting topic to discuss! Next time your out shooting a good active cell, just keep an eye out for pink-ish/red flashes around you when the cell is active, I find keeping low to the ground and wearing a hat with a good ambient light blocking peak helps a bit. I'm sure if we pool some collective knowledge we can solve these issues in time : )
Cheers guys, take care.
Shauno.
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My contact meteorologist friend in Melbourne says he's sitting on the fence! He said it could be a reflection as we've stated, but he also thinks it could actually be a stroke eminating from the ground. He said he's never seen anything like it!
Jury is hung!
Mike
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Hi Mike,
If your contact meteorologist has any queries please pass my email add. on to him, its> [email protected] and I'll do my best to help with any info I can provide, however helpful it may be in understanding these oddities. I'm just going through a few other video's containing these "floating streamers" with no cg's in sight, mostly intra-cloud lightning activity, so it doesn't really seem like a CCD problem as yet? They are not very impressive ones though as they are mostly at the tops of the frames unlike the positive streamers that show up well at ground level.
I'm still on the fence myself until we can provide good enough evidence about the "floating streamers" I'd definately love to show you guys the footage, it's quite amazing! Russell (the website master) has gone away for a few weeks but we are searching for an easy to use use video up-load program for the site to get this footage up and running asap.
Can anyone help me in finding out what causes the pinkish/purple colouring of the positive streamers? Positive or negatively charged hydrogen or nitrogen molecules possibly? The info I've read doesn't really explain what they are made of, if they know at all yet?
Cheers and take care. (keep watching the skies and ground!)
Shauno
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Lightning is always weird to me Jeff, so i'm not sure what to make of your photo. It is definitely rare irrespective of whether it is a CMOS artifact or genuine plasma. If you were shooting video it would be a different story - there is an overabundance of 'streamers' on video and the vast majority are artifact's.
Some notes and general blurb from me.
Reflection: As Jimmy eluded to, flipping and distorting it in my head (and with a few magic mushrroms to help it along haha), I too can see a similarity in shape with the main branch above... w/r to that coiled section.
Ionised air: I can't grasp the size of this 'thing' but this might be explained by the fact that I have not seen anything like it before. The lightning channel above looks 'closish'...1/2 km or less, but the filament looks to be extremely close to you just taking into account the foreground and overall photo......yet they appear to be of the same scale which is weird (or maybe the branch overhead was also very close). It is very hard to understand why there would be a small contorted, isolated piece of bright conductive air there. Was it possibly connected to an object on the ground?... might be an example of a streamer preceding the main bolt that you spoke of. If that was the case and given that the upward streamers develop in response to the increase in the proximal electromagnetic field associated with the downward progression of the stepped leaders, why are they so rarely caught on film at night? Are they generally too dull against the ambient lighting and lightning?
I think the following image shows evidence of a streamer coming off some structure, that is the only decent one I have seen.
(http://www.petebevin.com/archives/lightning-hitting-tree.jpg)
edit: The above image is copyright material of http://www.highvoltagephotography.com/
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Can anyone help me in finding out what causes the pinkish/purple colouring of the positive streamers? Positive or negatively charged hydrogen or nitrogen molecules possibly? The info I've read doesn't really explain what they are made of, if they know at all yet?
Cheers and take care. (keep watching the skies and ground!)
Shauno
While you're on that Shaun, I find it interesting that lightning changes colour from blueish to pink hues and back and forth again repeatedly. The first and best example was a Texas Panhandle supercell (2002) that produced constant intra-cloud bolts. I was not there and only saw the footage and assumed it was the camera trying to auto-adjust the white balance or such like. I am pretty sure Jimmy actually commented at the time (on video) or at least indicated after the fact that the changes were visible at the time. I am talking two minutes of blue back to reds back to blues and so forth. It is fascinating stuff.
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Doesn't lightning change colour with the amount of moisture in the air? I've seen many, may bolts in pink and purple due to being rain wrapped or near the curtain. Nice bright white strokes seem to be outside the area of precip. I've also seen purple/blue and pink bolts in intra-cloud stuff - could be a lot of things - illumination from other IC stuff, moonlight and of course the rain!
Anyway that's another topic .....:)
Mike
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Doesn't lightning change colour with the amount of moisture in the air? I've seen many, may bolts in pink and purple due to being rain wrapped or near the curtain. Nice bright white strokes seem to be outside the area of precip. I've also seen purple/blue and pink bolts in intra-cloud stuff - could be a lot of things - illumination from other IC stuff, moonlight and of course the rain!
Anyway that's another topic .....:)
Mike
Mike,
Yes it does, but I'm talking about a continuous 'switch like' effect observed with very clear inter (not intra...sorry!) cloud bolts and well away from the precip cores). It was as if someone had two filters and was switching them around for a good few hours! I doubt there would be much variation in moisture in thos situation (given the spatial and temporal constraints -- slow moving supercell storm and change in colour every few minutes).
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Hi David,
I was going to reference that film image taken by Johnny Autery in 1984. (I hope I catch a shot like that one day!) He says that the artifact coming from the TV antenna was a small bolt, but I would tend more towards it being a streamer, it looks like one coming from the tree top next to the mian strike though it looks more likely to be a cg branch? The roof of the building next to the tree (behind the fence post) looks interesting with a possible small streamer on the facing edge, but not seeing another clear day image I can't be real sure I can only offer that as my opinion? I was sent a recent copy of National Geographic by a friend in Florida with a great feature on lightning. (you may have seen it) It had Johnny's image in it as a full page thats nice and clear, along with a small story from him. They have also included a partial description of streamers, calling them Upward positive leaders, but didn't really go into any detail?
One of the best night time examples of a streamer I saw was video footage from the Brisbane Storm Chasers Site. It was located on the right side of the screen beside a pool in a yard while the main strike was more left/center, if my memory serves me well. It was very bright.
Next time we have a good active cell come by (I think the season may be drawing to a close at the moment) I will set my camera up with half ground and half sky so we can get a nice look at these things eminating from the ground or objects (I may even place a few around in the interests of "backyard" science) with some detail, fingers crossed! :)
The colouring of lightning has always fascinated me. I remember seeing a documentry a while back on lightning that explained if the cg's were more blueish/white hue, it was more Nitrogen content and a pinkish/red hue was a result of more Hydrogen in the atmosphere? I'll take a neutral stance on that for the moment, interesting thought though.
Cheers guys. Maybe we should've started a "Streamer and related articles" forum lol?
Shauno
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I'd really like to see the higher res image so I might fish out that NG article Shaun! It is a bit hard to make much else out on the jpeg I can only make out the two obvious streamers. Lightning is so interesting and complex that getting a separate forum might not be a bad idea.
One thing I have noticed it that there is some difference between lightning 'traits' in different areas. Read this extract from Wikipedia: lightning (and pay attention to Oklahoma Jimmy!!!!!!!!!)
"However, it has been observed from experiments that different locations in the US have different potentials (voltages) and currents, in an average lightning strike for that area. For example, Florida, with the largest number of recorded strikes in a given period, has a very sandy ground saturated with salt water, and is surrounded by water. California, on the other hand, has fewer lightning strikes (being dryer). Arizona, which has very dry, sandy soil and a very dry air, has cloud bases as high as 6,000-7,000 feet above ground level, and gets very long, thin, purplish discharges, which crackle; while Oklahoma, with cloud bases about 1,500-2,000 feet above ground level and fairly soft, clay-rich soil, has big, blue-white explosive lightning strikes, that are very hot (high current) and cause sudden, explosive noise when the discharge comes. Potentially, the difference in each case may consist of differences in voltage levels between clouds and ground."
Ok wikipedia might not be entirely reliable but it is getting to be very good and I can tell you, Great Plains Cgs can be like atomic bombs going off!!! I assumed it was the landscape (resulting in a healthy shockwave). What about Gene Rhoden's observation that tornadic supercells often produce smooth channel lightning - it held true on May 12, 2004 I know that - such as this:
(http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/stills/2004/0512jd063.jpg)
I jibbering now, but there is so much to learn with lightning. Yep another forum!!
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Thanks For the Reply Dave C, I've been waiting for ages for someone to actually reply on the orgional subject and at that, taking into account that it was NOT shot with video. Can I say that again? It was not shot with video. So forget the problems associated with video artifacts with this photo please as they have no bearing on SLR cameras. As for luminosity and whether or not a filimant can actually be seen near a major strike, I think the photo Dave C has posted shows that it very well can and quite clearly too. Remember it is about 100m or more away in that classic photo but in mine were talking 5m! Yes only 5m away so there's no doubt a streamer would be visable.
Dave C, the branch in the image went directly overhead and was within 100m of the ground and it came off the actual main cg channel which struck about 50m or less to my rear left out of the image. I heard gunshot style instantaneous thunder from it, so the conditions were ideal for a streamer in my immediate vicinity.
Please everyone note the fact that the rain drops immediately in front of my car have actually been illuminated by the lightning. That suggests exactly how close it is. Please if anyone else has a photo with evidence of such close lightning by all means submit it so I can see another example.
Now I also provided another example of a close cg photographed through a window with no reflections by Nick Moir. Any comments on that? Actually I have another photo of a cg that struck 100m away a few years ago i'll find and post.
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Here is another close Cg from 2002. It's a good example of a non-branching cg and it struck in the backyard of a house about 100 to 150m away. It was a single strike with no pulsing and no branches at all and even though it's so close it's not overly bright. This example is a good contrast to get an idea of how close is really close to a lightning strike, as you can be 100 to 150m or so meters away and it's very close at the time and you get nearly instant thunder but it's not that close that it lights up the rain around you.
I know it's not the best scan of this photo which was shot with film but in it you can see a reflection of the lightning on the roof of the house that it nearly struck.
(http://www.tempestlight.com/reports/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/Tempestlight%20Print%20Gallery/020326/02032604.lightning.penrith.jpg)
(http://www.stormtestdummy.com/chase%20reports/2007/070304/images/20070304_082.jpg)