Exercise 46: Rain

In this exercise, I have to make a magazine cover on rain. To be honest, getting a photograph of rain is easy, but getting a great photograph of rain is very difficult. To turn the question the other way around: what is a good picture of rain? It shows rain drops?

I turn my focus elsewhere. In the last post on “Evidence of Action”, I posted the image on OCA forum for critique. One issue brought up was whether the photograph shown something “have happened” or “going to happen”. I have that in mind when I was doing this exercise. The reason is, it is easier to do it here. I can look at what happen before and after the rain. In the other case, it is much harder for me because I have little experience on what suicide is like for real.

There are before, during and after I want to look at, so what happened.
Before the rain:

1)     Sky gets darker

2)     Wind blow stronger

During the rain:

1)     Sky is still dark

2)     Wind still blow strongly

3)     Rain falls from the sky (what else can it be?)

4)     The street (floor, windows, plants, wall) getting wet

5)     People holding umbrellas

6)     Flooding may happen

7)     Leaks (from ceiling?) may happen

After the rain:

1)     Water droplets

2)     Floor still wet

3)     Sun may shine

Why listing them out? Because a random photograph of rain is easy, but I have no idea what I want to present to you (actually, I am still clueless after doing the shot). Before the rain is very difficult to shoot. I walk along on the street and wonder if this is just another typical (gloomy) day in England, or this is before the rain. There maybe signs of windy, but it leaves the subject wild open.

During the rain is easier. I don’t have any leaks (luckily) at home and no access to flooding. So I want to show something wet.

As a hindsight, I wonder if compositional wise I should shoot from a lower angle and used a wide angle angle lens instead.

After the rain is more interesting, but I wonder if there is a little bit ambitious. The sun happens to be at a good angle to the rubbish bin, so I see rain drops and the sun ray.

To be honest, the composition is quite boring. I want to get closer to the rain drop, but there is a minimal focus distance.

The more typical image of shooting windows with raindrops. However, I wait until the rain is over to shoot this. So I get water droplet and blue sky. I wonder if it hints “after the rain” or it is too unclear (ie. can this be in a car wash or window wash)?
 

So what is the final verdict: the first shot is the easiest and the most clear one. I wonder, if we want to present an idea, why not just use something simple and effective? What is the issue of having cliche, when our goal is to communication the informaton? Is it too boring? Or this is just some what-so-called artist trying to show off their ingenity and end up in confusing the viewers?