Why would anyone want to go out hiking in pleasant, warm sunny weather is beyond me! Soooo much more interesting and fun to go out in the rain. Forecast showed it was going to be one of those days where it is just light to moderate rain all day long but not too windy, so I went to Miller Woods for a hike in the rain! It was a beautiful experience, you just have to be prepared for the conditions to be able to enjoy it. In addition to a rain coat there are a few other considerations. You need a good, wide brimmed hat. Choosing a trail which is mostly sand helps a lot because it drains so well, I was not having to slog through muddy puddles. No cotton! This one is important. Cotton soaks up and holds a lot of water, it loses its insulating properties when it gets wet and it takes a long time to dry out. Synthetic fibers and wool are the way to go, they dry out fast and do not lose their insulating properties. With just a little preplanning it is quite easy to enjoy a stroll through the woods through a few hours of rain on a Saturday afternoon.
Rain does not usually show up well in still photographs, this link shows a short video of a scene near the end of the days hike. https://youtu.be/0LV1Mt3NZ4k
Look close and you can see the rain drops hitting the surface of the water. A little over a month ago we were in the midst of a drought. Not anymore, everything is lush now.
One of my best water drop photos to date was the result of good fortune as much as anything else. Drops hanging on the underside of the foliage give the most interesting reflections. The problem is they tend to form quickly and then fall off. I’d tried to photograph drops like this one several other times on this hike, but each time they fell off before I could get the shot. I managed to get a single shot of this one before it let go, but I did not know till later that I had gotten the focus where I wanted it. Not only was the drop short lived, but the wind was moving the branch around and falling rain was hitting the leaves and causing everything to bounce around. These factors, among others, make this type of photography very challenging, with many more failures than successes. But when you do get one, it is worth all the time and effort.
My first photograph of the day, while the rain was still very light. Look closely and you can see a tiny little drop of water nestled in the pedals.
At this point the rain was picking up and droplets on the leaves were being bounced around, coalescing and running off as more and more rain fell. In the 15 seconds or so that it took me to aim, focus and take the picture, the scene changed multiple times.
My usual setup for closeup nature photography, with the addition of a $5 plastic cover designed to keep your camera and lens dry in the rain.
Another early image when the rain was light. This leaf just happened to be close to head height and I caught sight of this almost edge on view as I walked by.
This photo shows how the shape of the leaves acts to collect the rain water and funnel it in to the center.
At a certain point all of the vegetation was shimmering with droplets of water covering seemingly every leaf. As the rain continued the individual drops began to get washed off and they lost this sparkly quality.
More sparkly leaves.
This long blade of grass was sticking out to the side and was aligned vertically which produced the lovely row of drops hanging from the bottom edge.