The Nature Conservancy Australia announced winners of its 2015 photography competition today.
Ellisdon, of Outback Bob Photography, said he used a 15-second exposure, and set his camera to f8.0 and ISO 100 to take the picture near Yanchep Lagoon about 2am on February 4.
"The shot was taken in February and was the last bit of lightning we had over that week-long electrical storm that smashed Perth," he said.
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READ NOW"There was so much electrical activity that night; I got many, many shots " it was hard to fail."
Ellisdon said he started to take photography seriously when he hitchhiked more than 65,000km around Australia in 1998.
After studying herpetology, he focused on reptile photography then worked as a tour guide "in the red centre" taking people to Uluru, Kings Canyon and other parts of Australia.
Ellisdon said he spent a few years recently as a hard rock and heavy metal band photographer but was now focusing on his studio, doing family, pet and landscape photography.
"I own and collect cameras and occasionally teach people in the local area how to use their settings on digital single-lens reflex (cameras)," he said.
The Nature Conservancy competition attracted about 3770 entries this year, and judge Michael Snedic was impressed by the level of engagement through the people's choice voting.
"Judging the competition wasn't an easy task because so many of the entries were genuine contenders," the nature photographer said.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the process and am genuinely impressed with the amount of talented amateur photographers there are throughout Australia."
New South Wales retiree Arthur Roy won the competition overall for his picture of an egret called Chasing fish.