I really like this composite, I personally have never been able to get lightning just right. Great Work.

Thank you. I used the LunaPic Photo Editor to get the lightning effect. The flags were in St. Augustine, Florida, and they really were in front of a dead tree ( this was taken at the end of May). I worked just right, I thought, to add the lightning effect. (But I can't claim to have taken the lightning picture; it is an edited-in effect. I like the graininess that the effect added also.) Then that is layered over a shot from a recent July 4 fireworks display in Helen, Georgia. Our country seems to be beset with so many troubles right now, the war, the price of gas, healthcare concerns and the like. I was trying to come up with a Fourth of July photo that would symbolize that.