Australia Weather News

While most Queenslanders sheltered inside during the past week of severe storms, a breed of professional photographers known as storm chasers were outside, braving the danger to get the best possible shot.

They were undeterred as 1.1 million lightning strikes struck the state's south-east in six days.

ABC News spoke to three professional photographers to learn how to capture the perfect storm pic.

Photographer Renee Doyle caught a stunning image of lightning striking off the coast of a Surfers Paradise beach early on Tuesday morning.

She says it was one of the biggest electrical storms she has seen.

"I think like the rest of the Gold Coast I was woken up by the loud claps of thunder," she said.

"I couldn't resist, because out of the bedroom window I could see these enormous bolts of lightning and I thought to myself I just had to get up and get out there and just capture something."

Ms Doyle says most of the work involves camera set-up, framing and waiting.

"Photography is all about composition and light, so you try to frame your shot so that there is going to be some interest in the photo itself — which of course is the beautiful city of the Gold Coast," she said.

"Then comes the technical side of things and you have to set your exposure correctly, you have to manually focus, manually set your aperture."

"Just set everything correctly within your camera, your shutter speed and keeping your ISO as low as possible and then just keep shooting."

Getting on 'right' side of the storm

Storm chaser Justin Noonan has spent years tracking down super-cells here and in the United States.

He said it is important to be on the "right" side of the storm.

"Here in Australia, obviously things rotate clockwise so you have to be on the more northern side to get the best structure of the thunderstorm," he said.

"If you're downwind of the rain and the hail and the anvils that spread across the sky, you're not going to see anything and it's going to look lacklustre."

"But if you're on the right side, you're going to get some really good structure, particularly with a super-cell thunderstorm."

"Because it's rotating, it generally has a big mothership like appearance to it and that's when of course you're going to get some really good lightning and you're going to get some strong winds and features are superb."

But Mr Noonan says storm chasing is not for amateurs.

"I can tell you where a thunderstorm will develop, I can tell you where hail will form and where a tornado will develop," he said.

"One thing I cannot tell you about is where lightning will strike."

Always carry your camera

Photographer Cam Neville is based near Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland.

He says some of his best photos have come down to timing.

"I'm a great advocate of carrying my camera," he said.

"I think you have to be a bit in tune with what's going on and read the weather a bit."

"The fact that there's no control over it either. The beauty and the destruction go hand in hand with the weather and it's a fascinating subject."