In my experience of this region, thunderstorms are fairly uncommon, but today we had a massive front blow through. The underground lecture theatre in the brand-new conference building where I spent much of the day was leaking, eliciting jests and apologies from conference organizers and eminent speakers. I had to flout convention by tiptoeing over a lawn because the gravel paths I needed to traverse had become three-inch pools. It was dark and ferocious at noon.

Toward the end of the evening, I heard what I thought was the thunder starting up again. It turned out, instead, to be fireworks being let off over the Backs. From my own bedroom, I had the best seat in the house--though that did nothing to grant me instant knowledge of how to capture them for you. (Though I can analyze what I've done and see what I could/should have done differently--e.g., run downstairs for my tripod--I'm a bit of a fan of my random attempts, in any case. And though nothing would have eliminated the intervening building that forced my framing, obviously that building had nothing to do with my focusing fail.)