Upcoming thunderstorm

It is very dry for the time of the year. No wonder, the last couple of weeks we had sunny days with blue skies. The drought build-up (= precipitation – vaporation) since April 1-st is already -75 mm, a value that is usually reached at the end of the summer. But today, in late afternoon, you could sense a change in the air.
My daughter has just passed her driver’s license exam (a miracle has happened!) and after diner we made our first test ride in my car with her behind the wheel. In the distance I saw heavy weather that was approaching fast. To make a long story short, 15 minutes later I arrived (safely!) at the “Mosbulten”, an open marshy area. Ideal to test the real capabilities of the 17-40mm wide-angle lens with my brand-new 5D Mark II camera. The ditch with flowering Water Violet (Hottonia palustris/Waterviolier) was an unexpected pleasant surprise.
So today’s events confirmed what I already knew. For landscape photography you have to be fast as well (seconds after I took this picture it was raining cats and dogs) and you need just that bit of luck that everything fits. I forgot my tripod, but luckily switching to ISO 800 is not a problem with a full-frame sensor.

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40mm/f4 @ 20mm; ISO-800, f9, 1/50s; 2 stop ND gradient filter; hand held.