Pictures on a Rainy Day

 

Some photographers enjoy storm chasing. They track tornadoes, ambush the lightning and rolling supercells, or fortify a hurricane post. I photograph dripping branches.

People usually take shelter indoors during rain, except to move between interiors. Birds are more tolerant of the wet.

Water is unkind to electronics. A cameraman can be forgiven for preferring the morning after.

Or one might step out at night, for soft glows and glimmers.

A photographer might even get muddy.

But sometimes it pays to attend the little things.

This post is part of the Group Writing series for August 2019 on the theme Raining Cats and Dogs. Many slots remain open. 

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  1. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Lovely!

    • #1
  2. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Beautiful work, Aaron.

    • #2
  3. B. W. Wooster Member
    B. W. Wooster
    @HenryV

    Outstanding work.

    • #3
  4. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    I got caught in a downpour yesterday. I think my jeans must have weighed 20 pounds by the time I got home and wrung them out. I looked worse than that poor bluejay.

    • #4
  5. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Exquisite, Aaron. Always love to see your work. Thanks.

    • #5
  6. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    By the way, if you want to attract hummingbirds, they love that shrimp plant. And it is one of the few plants that has never needed replacing after extreme Texas summers and winters. 

    • #6
  7. Blondie Thatcher
    Blondie
    @Blondie

    Speaking of hummingbirds and rain, mine are very active during the rain. I have our feeder near the living room window so I can watch them all the time. They are a curiosity.

    Beautiful photography, Aaron. 

    • #7
  8. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Blondie (View Comment):

    Speaking of hummingbirds and rain, mine are very active during the rain. I have our feeder near the living room window so I can watch them all the time. They are a curiosity.

    Beautiful photography, Aaron.

    I’m so jealous! I loved watching them in CA, but we don’t seem to have them in FL. They were great entertainment!

    • #8
  9. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Blondie (View Comment):

    Speaking of hummingbirds and rain, mine are very active during the rain. I have our feeder near the living room window so I can watch them all the time. They are a curiosity.

    Beautiful photography, Aaron.

    Beautiful, indeed. There was repeated loud buzzing around dawn outside my tent, while camping in the mountains this past weekend. I thought it might be some large winged beetle. Then I was standing quietly outside and saw the source, a hummingbird.

    This conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under the August 2019 Group Writing Theme: Raining Cats and Dogs. Share your favorite story of rain, reign, and maybe cats and dogs, however loosely construed. There are plenty of dates still available. Our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits.

    Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.

    • #9
  10. Blondie Thatcher
    Blondie
    @Blondie

    I know it’s time to put my feeder out in the spring when they buzz me on my deck. They also let me know when the feeder is low or empty. They are almost as bad as my cat when it’s feeding time. 

    • #10
  11. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    • #11
  12. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    • #12
  13. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Lots of great pictures but the water on the black leaf really stands out for me . . . in an artsy-fartsy sort of way. Well done.

    • #13
  14. Kim K. Inactive
    Kim K.
    @KimK

    I’ve been working in my garage – it’s 102 today. (Only 102!) We get a couple of inches, if we’re lucky, of rain each year.  Looking at your pictures actually cooled me off.

    • #14
  15. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Wonderful! It’s getting ready to rain here…I hope! 

    • #15
  16. She Member
    She
    @She

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):

    By the way, if you want to attract hummingbirds, they love that shrimp plant. And it is one of the few plants that has never needed replacing after extreme Texas summers and winters.

    I’ll have to look into them, although it looks like I’ll have to grow them in pots and bring them in in the winter.  Our hummingbirds love hummingbird mint ( a pretty little plant, new for me this year), orange honeysuckle (not trumpet vine), bee balm, and the butterfly bush.

    I don’t have photos of them, except for the orange honeysuckle, which grew like stink this year:

    • #16
  17. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    They also like bottlebrush on the Gulf Coast. 

    The only thing I’m sure they don’t like is each other. 

    • #17
  18. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):

    They also like bottlebrush on the Gulf Coast.

    The only thing I’m sure they don’t like is each other.

    Watching hummingbirds fight is hilarious. I swear one here thought it was an Apache Attack copter, the way it would rise up from where it was hiding.

    • #18
  19. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    It did rain. Poured! And I went out and swung (swanged? Swinged?) on my birthday swing—last year’s present from my husband, and a very long, long, swoopy thing tied to a very high branch on one of our oak trees—-in the rain. 

    Okay, I’m 57. I didn’t swing all that long, and wine was involved. But still. 

    • #19
  20. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    SkipSul (View Comment):

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):

    They also like bottlebrush on the Gulf Coast.

    The only thing I’m sure they don’t like is each other.

    Watching hummingbirds fight is hilarious. I swear one here thought it was an Apache Attack copter, the way it would rise up from where it was hiding.

    The brother-in-law of a suicide victim assured me solemnly that he couldn’t meet with me outdoors. It was summer, and the hummingbirds would attack. 

    “Is there something weird about the hummingbirds?” I asked, thinking maybe the B.I.L. was bonkers.

    “No,” he said sadly. “It’s me.” 

    We met outdoors anyway. And lo-and-behold, within a few minutes the poor guy was being dive-bombed by hummingbirds.

    “It just happens,” he explained. We had to go sit in my hot car to escape them. 

    • #20
  21. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    We met outdoors anyway. And lo-and-behold, within a few minutes the poor guy was being dive-bombed by hummingbirds.

    “It just happens,” he explained. We had to go sit in my hot car to escape them.

    A redhead? Colorful shirts? Or just a sweet disposition?

    • #21
  22. Shauna Hunt Inactive
    Shauna Hunt
    @ShaunaHunt

    Gorgeous!

    • #22
  23. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    Lots of great pictures but the water on the black leaf really stands out for me . . . in an artsy-fartsy sort of way. Well done.

    Me, too.  It’s unique.   And it actually enhances a beautiful thing in nature that one might miss with the naked eye, whereas I would notice the glory of the flowers and birds and branches without the photographs.  

    • #23
  24. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    Lots of great pictures but the water on the black leaf really stands out for me . . . in an artsy-fartsy sort of way. Well done.

    Me, too. It’s unique. And it actually enhances a beautiful thing in nature that one might miss with the naked eye, whereas I would notice the glory of the flowers and birds and branches without the photographs.

    It’s my favorite also. At first, I did a double take, thinking Aaron had left the natural world, and entered a jewelry store and had photographed a diamond on its black velvet background.

    • #24
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