A Walk Through Downtown Charleston After the Rain
A few days ago, we had a tremendous amount of rain in the morning so I decided to grab my camera gear and head downtown with a single purpose…capture reflections of the downtown area in puddles. Although I brought my “big girl” camera, I only used it for one image and the rest I took with my cell phone. My biggest issue was that I was shooting within an inch of the ground most of the time and I didn’t have my wide angle lens with me…so I used my iPhone with the .5 wide angle lens most of the afternoon.
I’ve lived here for 14 years as a photographer…before that I did environmental work and got to know the whole area very well. In all that time, I’ve never done something like this…only looking in puddles. I mean, of course I’ve photographed reflections in puddles before, but not as a goal for the outing, concentrating on that aspect alone. It forced me to look at the same scenes I’ve passed by dozens of time in a different way.
Pineapple Fountain at Waterfront Park
The start of my journey.
I have to say, I got a lot of weird looks while I perched myself on the ground…again, and again, and again. My knees are killing me now BTW. Nobody inquired as to what I was doing but people seemed genuinely curious. Why is this? Likely because I wasn’t holding the camera right at eye level in front of my face which is the usual location for creating an image. I was doing something different, something unique, and I came home with images that nobody else has. That’s hard to do these days as everyone stands in line to get the same shot, just so they can put it on social media before their friends do and get more “likes” and attention. I find it takes actual will power, especially when you’re a beginner, to resit taking the same image that everyone else is doing. FOMO is it? A Fear of Missing Out? Or is it that you just lack the confidence to go against the grain? I guess this takes time, and practice. Only with practice can we stray from the pack and do something different and unique to ourselves. It’s also a risk. I am, after all, taking something quite familiar and making it look unusual…even weird.
A Familiar Sight…Photographed Often
Rainbow Row gets photographed hundreds of times every day by people from all over the world. I stood off the curb and placed my iPhone UPSIDE DOWN to get the camera as physically close to the water as possible. Pretty sure I got the phone wet. But it was worth it. Post processed in Lightroom on the phone and BeCasso App for the painterly look.
This next image is actually a bit of a brain teaser. I saw the light out of the corner of my eye and tried to make it work. I spent about 15 minutes in this spot alone…for this one image…trying to get the angle right. I used my Sony a6700 to get a shot of this scene as well but what you see here is the iPhone version.
It’s just a chandelier in a window…in a puddle.
But your brain has a difficult time “seeing” that right away unless I tell you what it is. It’s abstract…dare I say it “Weird”…but I love it! The brick street is what really made me spend more time here than I probably needed to. Even with the phone, the amount in sharp focus is pretty slim but I think it worked out okay. Definitely different…definitely uniquely mine.
We all hear the old advice that you shouldn’t let bad weather stop your photography…and I admittedly have decided to stay home rather than suffer the cold, wind, or rain numerous times in the past. But…I knew the rain would stop soon and I knew what it would leave behind…PUDDLES! I soaked my jacket, my shoes and socks, the top of my phone which dipped into the water more than once…but I came away with something interesting, attention grabbing, and All Mine!
I am going to need some Motrin though…dang those knees!
