Long exposure shots

While visiting my family in Michigan last week, I was walking into my parent's house from the car. I happened to glance up and was amazed by how well I could see the stars. After living in a city for 9 years, I forgot how clear the skies can be when there aren't any city lights to hinder them. So i grabbed my camera and tripod and took these shots. These were all 30 second exposures.






The next night (and last night before I left), I thought I'd go out and try again. I was disappointed to find that it turned into a cloudy night. But a little later, I started hearing thunder. So I took the camera and tripod out onto the front porch and captured the shots below. This is my first time photographing lightning.



For those curious about my methods, I set the aperture to f/22 to make sure I could keep the lens open for a long time without allowing too much light in. Then I set the camera to bulb mode (where the lens stays open as long as I am holding the shutter release down). Then I just held the shutter down when I heard thunder and waited for the lightning. These all ended up being about 10 - 15 seconds each. Any more than that, and it would become too overexposed. If after 15 seconds there was no lightning, I would simply let go of the shutter, and immediately press it again, so I didn't miss anything.