For this exercise, I had to imagine that I had to produce a magazine cover on the subject of rain.
I was very fortunate in that as if by magic, we had a day of rain. My only issue was that this was going on while I was taking the photographs for the Evidence of action exercise, so I was indoors looking out the window thinking about what I wanted to show with regards to the rain and then would I be able to get the photograph/s I wanted.
As I live by a main road, I was watching the cars go past and my initial thoughts were about trying to capture the spray coming off car tyres as they drove past, in my mind I saw an image where the spray was really high, my plan was to crop out most of the image and just focus on the wheel and spray. By the time I got finished with the other photography though, the rain had stopped and the road started to dry up (looking on the weather channel, it was clear that no more rain was forecast), so that idea was shelved.
I thought a trip up on the common would inspire me and with an open mind and no set ideas I ventured out (although I was thinking about trying to capture rain drops on leaves/plants). I took photographs of the rain droplets hanging down, but nothing really stuck out.
One thing I have played around with before is taking photographs of reflections in puddles. If you can get it right you can get a mirror reflection. What I have noticed about this is that there is a very slight difference between getting the puddle in focus and the reflection (will show this below).
I started with the usual style ones of the reflections of trees, my dog etc. however I still wasn’t getting what I was after. Leaning forward and over the puddle to grab a tennis ball for my dog, I looked down and saw my reflection in the puddle and had my inspiration.
As photographers we avoid our shadow in any images we take as it distracts from the image and at times it shows no thought process and planning (there maybe occasions though where it can’t be helped). My magazine cover came to life, I was going to do the “shoot” on Reflections that are caused by rain, as these are only available once you have had the rain, so not as if you can take the photographs all the time. I thought that having a photograph of a reflection taking a photo of the puddle (caused by rain), it would be a little bit different and would give the reader something to think about.
As you can see in the above image, I have managed to get a sharp reflection which shows me taking a photograph of the puddle. As I said above, at time this can be difficult as the lens wants to actually focus on the solid objects below the water line. As my manual focus needs fixing on my lens, it took me a little while longer than I would have expected to get this image, but my patience paid off and I got the image I wanted.
The images below, show how slight the difference is between the reflected image and the puddle being in focus, initially I never realised it, as it was only when I was reviewing the images that I noticed this.
Conclusion
When I first thought about this exercise, my main concern was the lack of rain, and once it started raining, what would I do. After reading the criteria and going out with an open mind in that the image doesn’t have to be rain itself, but also the effects of rain, I felt that something would come to me and I feel that by adopting this attitude, I have been able to fulfil the requirement of the cover photo for the magazine.