Petronas Towers and Lightning

So there was a thunderstorm in downtown. I wanted to capture it, so I did what I usually do for lightning: Camera on tripod, low ISO, small f/stop, continuous shooting, and use a cable release with the shutter locking mechanism so it continuously takes pictures, and hope for the best. Lots of lightning over the downtown buildings, but for some reason none of it showed up in the images. (An occasional frame got lighter… that was it.) My theory was it wasn’t dark enough; and that a bolt of lightning was trivial compared to six seconds of light per exposure. What to do? When I got back to the hotel I looked up an image of lightning from Google Image Search and photoshopped it in. Was this ethical? It is if I don’t mislead you about how I got it. My goal was to illustrate an event that I actually saw, kind of like an editorial shot which goes along with an article about lightning. This picture quite accurately represents what I saw with my eyes.
“(C) Gary L. Friedman. This The famous Wisma UOA Pantai building in Mid-Valley City.image is available for licensing. Contact info@FriedmanArchives.com“