Last night was one of those summer nights – hot, muggy and storms popping up left and right and disappearing just as fast.

At some point, my son (who was somewhere in the house doing something) came to us and asked what the flashing outside was. We kinda dismissed him with a quick answer about lightning. Maybe heat lightning, maybe a storm. No biggie.

A few minutes later he comes back with a, “No really. What is this out there. Come look.”

So we go to the entry and look up out the big front window and the sky is just lighting up over and over. So we open the door and step out. The flashing is almost constant and very localized. It keeps happening in essentially the same part of the sky. At first we thought it was fireworks relatively close lighting up the low, overcast sky. But that was quickly dismissed as there were no booms. The trees in the front were still blocking the view so I walked out to the end of the yard.

Basically as nutty-ass lightning storm thingy was brewing to the north of us. It was mesmerizing. Flashes of light punctuated by streaks that seemed to trace the outline of the clouds. After a few moments, I realized this was one of those rare opportunites where you have great lightning views and no rain. Photos!

I busted into the house and ran to the basement to find my tripod. Got back upstairs and grabbed my camera, put it on the tripod, snapped in the remote and got back outside.

What I didn’t think of is that it was a comfy 72 with no humidity inside (courtesy of modern air conditioning), but a tropic 78 with 100% humidity outside. The camera fogged up…bad. I stood there watching the storm and cursing the camera. The storm seemed to be moving in a southeast direction meaning that while it was moving from behind the neighbor’s trees into the unobstructed northeast sky, it was also slowing moving towards us as it swept across the sky. After about 10 minutes or so, my camera was not even close to settling in to the outdoor conditions and the first raindrops started falling. I grabbed everything and by the time I hit the door, it was a torrential downpour.

I was pissed at the missed opportunity to capture that fucked up lightning, but glad I went out and saw the free light show.

Would’ve made some really neat photos though…