Falling Water

I do almost all my photography on the weekend. It's the only time I have to get outside into the woods at dawn and dusk.

The weather soothsayer had predicted rain for the weekend. Cold rain. All of Saturday and Sunday. The sky was grey, and the weather felt more like fall than spring.

I had several ideas for this challenge. There was the obvious; falling water means waterfalls. I woke up Saturday morning trying to decide if I should make the one hour drive to Kugler Woods waterfalls or stay close to home and visit the Rock Brook to get an updated photo for the monthly photo challenge.

My daughter was performing in the pit crew for a musical, Seussical, at the high school. I dropped her off and drove over to the Rock Book to scope out the situation. The last time it rained this much, the brook was filled to the edges, after a flash flood warning for the area. The water was gushing, but I was still able to walk down to my favourite spot.

Perhaps I could capture some long exposures of the water before the brook filled up. But I had forgotten the Tokina 11-16mm f/4 lens and Hoya ND1000 filter at home. I pulled out my iPhone 7. I could use ProCam in Slow Shutter mode for long exposures. But I'd need a tripod, and I had also forgotten the Manfrotto PIXI. I propped my iPhone 7 against some rocks and snapped two shots before I panicked that the rain might damage my iPhone. I was nearly soaked through when I got back to the car.

I had some other ideas. I attempted to shoot raindrops falling and splashing off the pavement. I tried several shutter speeds. I stepped into the street near my home and put my Nikon D5100 on the PIXI and fired off a few shots. A few cars drove by. I must have seemed strange stooped over in the rain, getting soaked, and seemingly taking photos of the asphalt.

I experimented with shutter speed. I wasn't sure what I wanted. Did I want to suspend water drops in the air? Did I want a blur of water drops?

Let me know what you think.

Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.