Toward understanding seasonal characteristics of the lightning channel and its relationship to transmission line faults, lightning channels were observed through the year with many still cameras equipped with liquid-crystal shutters. The observation was carried out at Tonami Area in Hokuriku. A liquid-crystal shutter camera was developed for this purpose, which fully opened its shutter 3ms after a light detector sensed a light pulse. The delay time of 3ms is much shorter than that of about 30ms with a mechanical shutter. The period of the observation was from November 1992 until October 1994. 165 incidents were successfully photographed which included photographs showing several lightning channels in a frame. Based on these data, the relationship between the frequency of transmission line faults and that of lightning flashes striking the ground and transmission towers is known. Furthermore, seasonal dependence of the aspects of lightning channels such as progressing direction and the existence of the horizontal part of a channel are discussed.