We had a lot of lightning activity in the area on this late afternoon / evening. This is from the first storm cell that passed through. This particular flash was pretty amazing, and lasted what seemed like 3 seconds as the return strokes continued to discharge --- so long that I caught the main trunk on a second exposure. But what was really impressive is that this bolt came out and was pointed in my direction (overhead, thankfully). I envision this is what it would look like that split second before something (i.e., a being capable of seeing) gets struck by lightning.

I reduced the exposure in Photoshop because of the brightness of this bolt.