I have seen the one that looks like varicose veins as it formed (did not appear as this one did, like air-bursts from fireworks). It was just above the tree-line about 40 feet away, I did not see it at 10,000 FPS but it probably looked similar.

Had lightning crack just behind and above me once-That one sent a sonic shock through my abdomen to my balls and scared the holy shit outta me! I heard the damn thing forming was what startled me so much, and could smell the intense ionization in the air just prior....surreal.

*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, August 21st, 2013 6:46pm PDT - promote requested by chingalera.

@chingalera I live about 300ft or less from a cell tower and have had it pull lightning in twice. The sound was simply astounding. Both times it blew up electronics in the house, motherboards, routers, a video card. One thing I noticed is that within a couple seconds after the burst both times ALL my dogs were suddenly in the room with me. They were like DOES NOT COMPUTE, HUMAN TAKE CHARGE.