rain

A Rainy Spring Drive Over the Blue Ridge Mountains /  by Todd Henson

The glare of headlights

After a dry spell we suddenly received a large amount of rain in a short time, and sitting at home listening to that rain patter on the roof inspired me to sort through and process a number of photographs from April of 2023 when my father and I drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains on Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park in the rain.

Springtime rains on the road

Photographing From the Car

The day hadn’t begun raining (in fact, I’d just photographed my first white trillium flowers about an hour before creating these photos), and it didn’t end that way, either. But for parts of the day we had the pleasure of winding down the Blue Ridge Mountains through anything from a light and misty rain to a heavy downpour with gusty winds. Being the passenger that day enabled me to create these photographs.

Lichen, branches, road and rain

I would often watch the windshield wipers and time my exposures for just after they wiped the water off the windshield. This gave me the clearest view. But in some of the photos you can see droplets of water on the windshield. They create a slight blur that, when there are enough droplets, almost gives the photo a slightly more painterly look that I enjoy.

A wet and winding road

Camera Settings

From a technical perspective, it was a bit dark because of the rain and we were in a moving car so I wanted a high enough shutter speed to avoid too much motion blur (except in those instances when I played around with purposefully slowing down the shutter speed). This meant I used a fairly high ISO, between 1250 and 2000. I also used a reasonably wide aperture of f/5.0, which did limit the depth of field but helped give me a shutter speed of anywhere from 1/125th to 1/400th of a second. I was using a 16-80 mm lens (thanks, Alex) in the 44-56 mm range, chosen based on the view from inside the car.

Fleeing the rain towards a hole through the mountain

Post-Processing

I did process these photos a fair bit in Adobe Lightroom, largely dodging and burning (old darkroom terms for brightening and darkening) to highlight some areas and lessen the impact of others. For example, I liked the light greens and browns of spring so I brightened those up enough that they stood out, and I darkened wet branches to help them stand out more. I added a little contrast in some areas that had been reduced by the rain.

Follow the leader through the rain

What do you think of the results? Did I go too far? Would you have gone a little further? Let me know in the comments below.

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Roadtrip from the Blue Ridge to Mount Jackson in the Rain /  by Todd Henson

Towards the end of April my father and I went for a day trip in Virginia. We’d visited a hamfest in the morning, then drove along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and found some white trillium flowers closer to noon. Just after photographing the trillium it began raining and it continued for some time as we drove out of Shenandoah National Park and along Route 211 west towards Luray. I was the passenger on this trip and had kept my camera out as we drove so I decided to create some “from the road” photographs to capture some of our trip and show what the roadside scenery looks like in a storm.

Route 211 From the Blue Ridge to the Massanutten

Route 211 between the Blue Ridge and Massanutten mountain ranges can be a beautiful scenic drive. These two photos were created past Luray as we approached the Massanutten. You can see the same house and barns in them both. As beautiful as this area is, I felt it was even more beautiful on this rainy day, and I even enjoy the spots of rain on the windshield, something I most often try to avoid by clicking the camera shutter just after the wipers clear the windshield.

Route 211 west towards Massanutten

Raindrops on the windshield while riding towards Massanutten on Route 211

Route 11 from New Market to Mount Jackson

From Route 211 we turned right and headed north on Route 11, leaving New Market and heading towards Mount Jackson. This is another beautiful stretch of road that parallels the Massanutten mountain range. I found several scenes I thought were worthy of photographing, with various buildings set off against both the Massanutten in the background and the clouds in the sky.

A farm house, clouds, and Massanutten

A church and the Massanutten range along Route 11

Farm land and the Massanutten range

Tips

So often on these trips I see what I believe would make wonderful compositions while in the car, but seeing them and capturing them while the car is moving are two entirely different things. Everything is in motion, the car, me within the car, the camera within my hand, and other cars on the road. I’ve shared some techniques in the past to help with photographing from a moving car, such as raising the ISO and shutter speed and turning on vibration reduction, and to add to those suggestions, keep your arms and body slightly flexible so they move with the movement of the car. This might help reduce the harder vibrations of the vehicle moving along the road, similar to how moving video cameras are sometimes mounted on stabilizers to smooth the motion.

Photographing from the road is a lot of fun and something I highly recommend if you’ve never tried it yourself. It gives you the chance to realize some photos you might not otherwise be able to create. Just be sure you’re a passenger if the vehicle is moving.

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Lotus and Water Lilies at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens - 2015 /  by Todd Henson

Dark pink lotus blossoms just opening

Opening lotus blossom covered in rain drops

It’s that time of year again when lotus and water lilies are in bloom at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C., when they hold their annual Lotus and Water Lily Festival. The day started with rain, leaving us wondering if it was worth the drive if it was going to be a wash out. But the rain was forecast to clear up so we made the trip and it was well worth it. The rain left water droplets on all the flowers, naturally saturated all the colors, and honestly, kept some of the early morning crowds a little lighter than they might have been otherwise, though the crowds did grow as the rain stopped. It’s fascinating all the different people who show up to view these flowers. One day perhaps I’ll photograph some of the people as well as the blooms.

Bumble bee above dark pink lotus blossom. There are several streaks of rain on the left side.

One thing I noticed this year was some of the ponds contained lotus blossoms that were lighter in color, a very pale pink that almost seemed to glow. The overcast day was perfect for photographing these, no harsh light, no hard shadows. Just an evenly lit glowing lotus blossom. Other ponds held lotus blossoms of a much darker, deeper pink. These had beautiful color, but didn't glow quite like the paler blossoms did. I love the variety.

Bumble bee above a lotus blossom

Small green insect on lotus blossom

Six-Spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes Triton)

As with last year I found myself looking for insects to add some extra interest to the photos. This year there were very few dragonflies because of the rain, though they did begin coming out after the rain ended. I did manage to capture a couple bumble bees, as well as several other small insects. The most distinctive insect (arachnid, actually) I photographed was a fishing spider. I believe it was a six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes Triton), if I've identified it correctly. I found it on a lily pad. When other folks walked closer it dove into the water and disappeared. Fascinating.

Pink water lily and a small insect

The lotus blossoms draw the largest crowds, but if your timing is good you can also view some of the beautiful water lilies in other ponds. Kenilworth has a nice variety of water lilies. Some are very simple white flowers, in fact, my favorite photo of the day is of a white water lily. Some of the water lilies are similar shades of pink to those of the lotus. And some of the water lilies are amazing shades of purple, though I don't have any photos of those in this post.

White water lily, my favorite image of the day

The photograph, White Water Lily, is available for purchase as wall art or on a variety of products.

We usually arrive early in the morning and continue photographing and walking around until we get comfortably tired. But this means we often don't spend a lot of time around the festival events. This year was no different, but we did see the tail end of a presentation by and about Cindy Dyer, an Alexandria-based photographer who was recently honored by the United States Postal Service by having a series of her photographs used on a set of Forever Stamps. She's a very talented photographer and has produced some beautiful images. She is well deserving of the honor.

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