Backwards lightning?

In this picture, it is easy to sea that visible lightning is actually the return stroke.

One amazing fact that people do not realize is that the lightening strike we see is its return stroke coming from the ground not the clouds. This is because 99 percent of what is illuminated of what we see is the return stroke and not the sending stroke. People get this confused mostly because of the photography of lightning they see the lightning appears to be going down but that is all. It is an appearance because the return stroke is so fast as it travels up the strike channel and it forms branches causing it to appear to be striking downward.