Rainy Days

Yesterday it was raining on and off in Boston but nevertheless I made my way over to the beautiful Hall's Pond sanctuary for some rainy day photography. I envisioned that if I am lucky I may find the occasional heron stalking in the rain for its dinner. Instead I found a male Mallard Duck completely soaked after an earlier heavy downpour. I was lucky to have brought my umbrella that protected me and my camera gear from getting soaking wet. After capturing a few images of the duck I spotted the heron in one of the trees grooming itself. At this point I decided that there was no decent photo opportunity and made my way over to the  formal garden that never really disappoints. And again, it didn't. I immediately found my special photographic objects for the day while walking in and a bunch of white irises drenched with raindrops was just screaming to be photographed. Knowing that overcast sky makes for good lighting condition in close-up photography I set up tripod and camera. I chose the Canon 300mm telephoto lens in combination with a 1.4 telephoto extender to keep the Depth of Field to a minimum and to isolate the white iris from any disturbing features in the background. It's truly amazing what nature offers when one keeps looking around and paying attention to detail. I tried multiple compositions from various angles but settled on a straight on view that allowed me to isolate the floral against a darker green background with a second iris out of focus. With the tripod and camera lowered slightly above the level of the flower, I adjusted the aperture setting to f/8 to achieve sufficient depth of field. The slightly windy conditions turned out to be a little bit of a problem but there were always moments where the wind slowed down and the iris remained calm. A low ISO setting in combination with the aforementioned aperture resulted in an Exposure time of 1/40 second. The use of the camera self timer minimized camera shake and enhanced picture quality. During the post processing process, I minimally adjusted contrast, lighting, and color saturation before sharpening the final image of The White Iris. It's raining ... it's pouring ... but I ain't complaining 'cause I love the rain.