Last night we experienced our first almost-monsoon.  What makes a storm a monsoon? There is a super-fancy definition which you can look up (or google it). But, to us, this had all the feelings of a monsoon. There was some rain, heavy at times. Check. It was windy. Check. There was a lot of lightning. Check. As you can imagine, monsoons can be quite dangerous and everyone is advised to seek shelter. Not us. We grabbed our cameras, tripods, and my new lightning trigger and headed for the back yard. To us, monsoon equals photo opp.

This new lightning trigger is a device capable of black magic. I just hooked it up to my camera, pointed it in the direction of the lightning, and walk away. A little bit later it went click!

The lightning trigger worked great as it triggered the camera just before the lightning bolt.

The lightning trigger worked great as it triggered the camera just before the lightning bolt.

And click!

This massive bolt came with a huge thunderclap. Maybe it was time to go inside. Nope.

This massive bolt came with a huge thunderclap. Maybe it was time to go inside. Nope.

Then, a little while later, click again.

The skies were ever-changing, going from purple to blue.

The skies were ever-changing, going from purple to brown to blue.

While we were shooting. Or shall I say, while the camera was automatically shooting due to the lightning trigger, there was an incredible burst of wind. So much so that the large tree just outside our backyard snapped in half, falling on our stone fence and into the yard. Its funny, just the other day we talked about having the gardner trim in back. No need!

There was so much lightning that you didn’t even need the new, fancy lightning trigger. Kas set up her camera in the front and pressed the camera trigger. She got the best shot of the night!

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Multiple bolts explode out of the sky over our neighborhood.

Remember, here in Arizona, it’s all about the lightning!