Not smart enough to come in out of the rain

I happened to be outside when the rain ended yesterday. I grabbed the camera and figured it was the perfect moment to work on a few areas of photography that I’d been forced by the southern California climate to neglect.

The storm ended rather abruptly. One minute it was raining; the next the clouds parted, the blue sky peaked through, and the rain was done. I was on the east side of Rancho Park, which is one of the great resources of my neighborhood that I make far too little use of.

My goal was to capture with the lens as much detail of the water drops as I possibly could. It was a little unnerving. In many cases, I had to switch off the auto-focus altogether—a big step for a rank amateur like me—and do the best I could with minute movements of the focus ring.

And even though I had boots in the trunk, I hadn’t bothered to put them on for fear the time changing would make me miss the shots I was after. In retrospect, that probably wouldn’t have happened. But the result was a fair amount of sloshing around in mud beneath the trees.

I liked the shots I was getting, but I can’t help but think how much closer they could have been had I not given the macro attachment I once had in my camera bag (and never used) to my daughter.

See, sometimes it pays to not be smart enough to come in out of the rain.