A photographer and a frog walk into a thunderstorm...

A teacher of mine shared a story with our class a while back in one of my photography classes that I think has a particular bearing for me here in Japan.
This teacher was in Texas for a high school reunion and somehow ended up in a heritage building of some sort for reasons that I cannot remember. While he was visiting this house, a freak thunderstorm broke out that knocked the power out to the building. It was apparently a fantastic storm as the lightning was arcing directly in front of the house quite rapidly and it lasted for quite some time. While he was standing at the front porch of the house watching the amazing light and sound show in front of him, a small albino frog wandered onto the deck. He said that it was the oddest looking frog that he had ever seen and that there must have been something about the weather that drew the creature out as he seemed out of place in the daylight. The creature was probably out of sorts because it had no qualms with the teacher walking right up and sitting down beside it. The frog seemed equally fascinated with the storm as its attention was focused out towards the elements. It was with this frog that he sat on the steps of the heritage home and watched the most amazing lightning storm that he had ever seen.
He had brought his camera to this house, but had only brought a slow film (he only shoots film) and did not bring a tripod or a flash. With the darkness of the blackout and the harsh cloud cover overhead, without a tripod, there was no way that he could capture any images of this amazing frog or the beautiful lightning in front of him. At first he could not believe his misfortune in not being able to capture any of this situation. Eventually however, he said that instead of focusing on his camera and taking pictures, he was able to sit and enjoy, to a much greater extent, the surrealness of the scene before him.
This being my first time away from home in such a foreign country, I realize that I have not been taking nearly as many photos as I should be. At the same time, I’m not sure that I would be enjoying myself as much as I am if I made more of an effort to lug my camera bag about with me everywhere I go. I’m overwhelmed as it is in this country without having to worry about my aperture or ISO settings. I’ve been taking my small point-and-shoot camera with me quite often, but the batteries seem to die very quickly in it – not exactly sure what’s up with that. Anyway, I hope you will have patience with me as I am sure that there will be many photos to come.