The world's tallest building was struck by lightning last week. The best part? It was captured.
Since it's all about the timing, photographer Brian Hawkins captured the perfect moment when lightning struck the Burj Khalifa during a thunderstorm last week, Yahoo News reported.
Set up in Dubai's Business Bay, Hawkins planned ahead to capture the moment. Along with his friend, fellow photographer Michael Shainblum, he waited for an hour and half for the storm on Wednesday night, Yahoo News reported.
"The time-lapse video was made by taking about 500 individual photographs using a Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera. A remote triggered the camera once every five seconds for about an hour," the Los Angeles-based photographer said.
"We tried to stay dry by standing under a building awning. After shooting, I rendered the photos into the time-lapse video using Adobe After Effects."
Shainblum, who also captured the rare moment, shared the photo on his 500px profile and said, "This photograph is 100% real!"
Just how did Shainblum get the shot?
"I stood out in the rain for 4 hours trying to get some kind of lightning strike around Downtown Dubai, I had no idea I would actually catch a lightning bolt hitting the Burj Khalifa. I was running a time-lapse on two cameras during the strike," Shainblum said. "One camera was out by the water and one camera under some shelter. I noticed the rain started to get heavy and ran towards the camera by the water."
He continued, "By the time I got to the camera everything was soaked and the entire dirt lot had become flooded with mud and water. I noticed a giant strike and ran the camera back to the shelter to see if the 2nd camera had caught anything. This was the image I saw when I looked at the screen."
In Dubai for a vacation, the pair was there to capture the city's scenes, Yahoo News reported.
"This was my first visit to the Middle East and I hope to come back soon since I really enjoyed it. There's so much that I still want to do on another visit, including going to the top of the Burj Khalifa," Hawkins said.
Brian Hawkins' work can be followed on his Instagram account and Michael Shainblum's on 500px.
