It's hard to say if its doctored or not, although when put through the photoshop mill the structure does look a little too clean (see the very precise swishes) (swishes is not the technical term):

bloody file type rule


edited again. oh forget it, I can't upload the image. Sulk.

The photographer was probably using a very long exposure time, maybe half a minute or something, in order to catch the lightning. The clouds nearest the camera were probably moving quickly, because of the high winds associated with a thunderstorm, and so their appearance would be a little smoother than we expect.

What a reasonable thing to say. I think you are right.

I've seen time lapse pictures of a rocky coastline with waves crashing on it. It looks dead calm, if not a little blurry.

This is truely amazing, thanks for posting this!

The photographer's name is Jim Reed, and according to his site, he specializes in "severe and unusual weather" photography (his work was the basis for some of the effects in "The Day After Tomorrow").

As for this being doctored, no way. Check out the rest of his stuff on his site , or do a search for "jim reed" on corbis.com.

He's obviously spent his career in the middle of some cool-a** storms.

Here is his portfolio:
http://www.jimreedphoto.com/jrpportfoliomain.htm

My oh my...what splendid photographs!!

Although, I would venture a guess that he used certain color filters during processing to enhance things, like sky color, etc.