These stunning pictures show hundreds of lightning bolts in full force illuminating the night sky in South Africa.
Alexius van der Westhuizen, a 46-year-old real-estate agent, captured the dramatic thunderstorm over the skies in Johannesburg.
Each picture is a composition of dozens of images taken during three-hour sessions over the course of the summer.
The lightning strikes are layered over each other to give the impression the sky is erupting with dozens of bolts at once.
Using a DSLR camera Alexius managed to capture these brilliant images after merging the layers to create one explosive picture.
"I use a remote and keep the shutter open for around four seconds or until I get a strike. Only one out of about every four photos will have a strike in it.
I am very excited when I get a strike and quickly look on the LCD on the back of the camera, sometimes out the corner of my eye I see a big strike that I missed because I was too eager to look at the image.
I shoot hundreds of pictures during a storm. I select the most interesting strikes, or those that complement each other, to import into the computer program, The results are incredible images that show the fearsome power of nature.
Johannesburg is hit by electric storms every day during the summer months from November to March. It is a welcome, yet dramatic respite to the blistering heat."
