I think your pictures are out of question. The source of the lightning is still in question.
As somebody already mentioned, with a nice digital camera you can make ufo-like videos.(I Once did one by mistake and it looked like an approaching
group of 8 ufos - I thought about posting it here to get some funny "oh my god!" replies )
Anyway. The first thing I would do now is to go and shoot some photos from the place where the lightning started. Maybe you find some burned grass or
something else that inidicated something not normal.
You didn't read the thread. This happened 2 years ago in Romania. I live in London now. I'm not going to be taking any more pictures or doing any
examinations.
I have lots of photographs of the helicopters the next morning but most of them are like the image on my website (The image with the power
lines). I do have some pictures from the field from this particular time but there's nothing to see.
Sorry if you got it wrong. The point I was criticising was that if this would just have happened to me, I would go and watch the place it took off.
It's the first thing that comes into my mind about this incident - and you didn't shoot any photos(at least not the next day). Not saying there
hasn't been anything but it seems to me you weren't going there as you yourself weren't really sure that there really was something.
The object didn't move in a slight wind. It definately wasn't a baloon. Nor would I say that it was a firework, flare, or any other kind of normal
burning material.
On the ground it looked like fire, but once airbourne it took on a more liquid or fluid appearance (surrounded by orbiting/twisting black bands - a
bit like swirling smoke but quite dense). It then flew to the distance at quite a high speed. And when it returned (very far away), it was flying in
another direction.