Yesterday I received an unexpected call from Mairym; she was on the island for a week and wanted to hang out. Awesome. Today I woke up, showered, and headed over there. I got lost in the mountains trying to find her house (as usual), but it was pretty, so I figured as long as I'm here I might as well stop and take some pictures.

Finally I found her house and picked her up. We got food and headed to El Morro to eat lunch on the wall of the fort overlooking the old cemetery. Then it was time to return to her house because she needed to babysit some cute kids. We watched The Lion King and I got high fives from the kids (well, one of them would only give me high-fives with her foot).

Mairym then headed out with her sister to watch some friend's band play, and I headed home. The sky was silent and dry but lighting flashed frequently in the distance, so I returned to my newfound pretty spot to make a second attempt at lightning pictures. The setting is perfect; there's a wooden gazebo-like platform built on the side of the mountain overlooking the city. I set up the camera and tripped the shutter. I'm growing to enjoy night photography, because the shutter speeds are long and the settings are usually peaceful and often quite impressive, so it's relaxing to trip the shutter and then lean back and enjoy the view.

A couple arrived to share the lookout, and I conversed with the guy about night photography. I made a few exposures and then packed up and returned home. The sky was cloudy, but I managed to get a decent shot regardless. These cloudy nights keep you from obtaining those dramatic photos with forked lightning clearly marked against a dark sky, but I kind of like how the lightning illuminates the clouds from behind.