This storm came quite unexpectedly. There were some virga streaks in the western sky around sunset, and these were coloring a spectacular red and orange hue. I was pleasantly surprised to see lightning in this. I went to my photography location about half a mile from my home, and started photographing with my digital camera (a Nikon D100). It was too light to do slides at first. Also, the lightning unfortunately occurred to the side of the red virga. But a new cell started right there! A brilliant cloud-to-ground flash occurred, which was within the frame of the camera, and I immediately switched to slide film. Several other flashes followed. The problem was that the storm was approaching quickly and I had to take cover in the truck. But my truck was home to a black widow spider at the time, so I had the choice to sit in there in the dark, or stay outside in the open field right under the thunderstorm. I chose the truck, and luckily wasn't bitten. It started raining very hard, so photography was almost impossible, and soon after the storm died.

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