See that solid stream of light tracking the highway across the bridge? That's headlights of traffic. Lots of people crossed while the photographer was waiting for enough strikes to hit to make the photo he wanted.
Nice picture but no big deal to get it.
It is a big deal out here. We almost never get a storm like that. This must have been the first thunderstorm in the Bay Area in 10 years.
It's not the difficulty of the picture, it's the rarety of the event.
-PJ