Although the wired prairie is in southern Wisconsin, we’ve only had one or two thunderstorms this year. Last nights was a bit of a disappointment from a pure lightning perspective, as I had hoped that there would be more visible lightning bolts — much of the lightning was just illuminating the sky.

I’ve posted a few of the more interesting shots on SmugMug here. All of the shots were taken within a 20 minute window, including the few that look like daylight.

Just like a flash on a camera, a bright lightning flash can illuminate the world:

When your plane is scheduled to depart — yet you can see into the cockpit of the plane that the pilot is not sitting down — that usually indicates there will be a delay. After a long hour and a half wait for a “in 13-minutes status update”, I noticed the sunset over the plane to our right and snapped this. The photo is as good as I could do through a scratched marred outside window.

It’s a release candidate, but hurray!, a way to actually view DNG files outside of Adobe applications in Vista (like in Windows Live Photo Gallery and the Explorer).

Mentioned earlier.

Unboxing of a Really Right Stuff BH-40 ballhead (specifically the BH-40 LR).

I haven’t had it long enough to do a review, but I thought I’d put a few pictures out there (as I couldn’t find images with the ballhead at various angles).

 

The instructions recommend transporting the head in the protective bag (and not leaving it attached to a tripod).

Here’s what comes in the box:

  

Here’s my Joby SLR-Zoom with the Really Right Stuff ballhead mounted. I have a Nikon D300 and also purchased the Really Right Stuff L Plate.

As you can see from these next images, the Joby holds the camera well, even when it’s angled. At no point did I feel like the Joby was becoming unbalanced.

I flipped the camera in the next batch.

There’s a handy symbol on the L Plate (and quick connector) so that you can properly center the L Plate.

By the way, the Joby is a great tool. There already are a lot of reviews out there about the Joby so I won’t bother detailing out the reasons I like it (lightweight, has an amazingly strong grip, can grip onto poles, fences, simple, & inexpensive). I used it on a recent trip to Atlantic City, NJ and found it to be a great way to steady my camera in low light situations. I doubt I’ll normally use the Really Right Stuff on the Joby — but it worked well! (They make Joby’s for smaller cameras as well).