singing and dancing in the rain
Friday, May 8, 2009 at 09:28AM 
man & nature # 136 • ALL PICTURES - click to embiggen
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man & nature # 138Yesterday's weather - a brooding gray overcast and a light misty rain - at times heavy and wind-driven, albeit very fine raindrops, gave me cause to get out and play a round of golf. So I donned a black turtleneck shirt, black pants, and black socks (to match the mood) and off I went with a bottle of water, a big chocolate cookie, a banana, my golf gear, and (as always) my camera stuff.
The golf was great and, surprise, surprise, I had the course all to myself. That said, I nearly didn't make to the course because it was very picture-rific everywhere I looked.
What amazes me about a day like yesterday is how dramatically the landscape is transformed by rain. As I mentioned a short while back, for me, the rain is like a "natural" Hue & Saturation slider. Stuff that I see everyday seems almost to literally rearrange itself and present my eyes with a never-before-seen "arrangement".
I am fairly certain that this realignment is due to the fact that the landscape becomes much more colorful in the rain. As some colors become more saturated and/or dark, they do, in fact, create different tonal / color relationships amongst the various elements of the natural world which is the subject of my camera's gaze. To my eye and sensibilities, things just look different than they "normally" appear (and are not "catching my eye").
Do any of you like to get out and picture in the rain?
Reader Comments (4)
In film (moving pictures) streets are almost always artificially wet. On film, black shining asphalt shows more contrast, and is more dramatic. A majority of Crewdson's work is also artificially wet.
I make many photographs while walking to the bus on my way to work. It's about a half mile, most of it on a bluff above a river, pond, and bird sanctuary, the rest on city streets with old homes nestled in mature landscaping. I live in Portland, Oregon. For half the year that walk is in the rain, and I make photographs in that rain almost daily. Lovely light. It seems almost to create colors where there are none in sunlight. As spring emerges and flowering plants begin to add color, the rain slacks off and mornings are full of slanting sunshine. Lovely stuff, but I regret it and begin to hope for morning fog off the river and pond.
Yes, I love the visuals and the mood in the wet world.
And it chases away the weak.
Saturday was like that in these parts, not so much wet, but spitting rain now and again. The winds had completely laid, the air heavy, and the color, OMG, the colors. Absolutely out and about with camera on a day like that.