Late afternoon on an overcast, dreary day, I glanced out a west-facing window to see the sky on fire.  Dashing downstairs, I threw on a coat, grabbed the camera bag and tripod and jogged down the street.  (The view west from my house is not good.  Too many trees and houses.)

In the three minutes it took to get to a more open area the light had faded considerably.  Working as fast as I could with freezing fingers, I set up the tripod, mounted the camera, chose some settings, and started shooting.  The above was the best I could do.  Three minutes later it looked like this:

I’m going to start leaving the camera and tripod set up by the front door.  And set an alarm to remind me to check the sky every afternoon.