Fresh Ground Photography

Rainy Day

It’s July, Summer’s peak, so of course it’s raining and it’s so easy to just stay inside. Now I’ll admit that there are plenty of interesting images to be made in the house, not least by controlling the light using flash, reflectors and other shenanigans. But, more often than not, I’ll leave my camera in its bag and not use it. But today I was feeling a bit cooped up so I ventured out into the rain.

I picked up my Canon 5D mkIV for this. I love the weight of it, as well as the way in which it handles low light conditions. I put a Lensbaby Velvet 56mm lens on the camera body because I wanted to accentuate the damp, soft light of the rainy day.

I really like Lensbaby lenses, they can be used to add effects and feeling to an image – in the camera, not in post production. It’s a manual focus, prime lens … so very simple, pared back, in many ways. This particular lens has a very soft focus and vignette effect when the aperture is opened up. The images here were shot f/4 at ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 1/160s.

And, do you know, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed working with the different light conditions; with the ordinary subject matter – shot in extraordinary conditions; and, of course, the Lensbaby lens.

But the real point of this post is that a rainy day can throw up more opportunities than restrictions. Plants look great when they have a misting of water on them, and you don’t need a garden to do it in. Put a potted plant outside (they’ll appreciate the rain), snap your window box … or somebody else’s.

But from now on, I will consider bad weather to be a way to turn a damp, dismal days into opportunities to create unique images.

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