These Rainy Days

It is beginning.

Sidewalks coloured red, yellow and orange by a layer of leaves.

A sea of black umbrellas are like a forest canopy on busy city sidealks.

Each leaf of a tree has its own little gathering of water droplets with their own miniature reflections of the world around us.

Fall is here.

I’ve been going for daily photowalks.  Often just a block or two, taken when I need a break from the computer or when the rain pauses.  I love those times when photo walks become a regular practise.  It is such a simple act to go walk a few blocks with a camera and making it a daily action makes me mighty happy.

I’ve been testing out some of the activities I have planned for Light Hunters: Getting through the Grey and taking new photos for this November’s session of the 30 Day Light Hunters class.

I am so excited about offering these two courses in this season, when the sun doesn’t always shine where I live.  When I first offered Light Hunters in July, I was surprised how often people would say ‘I can’t wait for the sun to come out so I can go Light Hunting’.  That totally rocked, but it also made me want to make sure I inspired the participants to go Light Hunting even when it wasn’t nice outside and to help them to see the the benefits of the more subtle types of light.

Light Hunters: Getting through the Grey has been on my mind as something to share for a long time.  For the last few winters I’ve been making lists each year, that I’ve called ‘Getting through the Grey’ which is a list of ideas to get me inspired to keep taking photos even when it isn’t prime photography weather.  This course comes from those lists and I’m excited to share them each week with the participants.  Whereas the original Light Hunters runs for the month of November, Getting through the Grey involves weekly posts each monday from December to January.

You can find out more about the two Light Hunters classes by following this link.

This week I’ve been all about my macro lens.  I think I’ve used it more this week than I have all year.  It is those little water droplets on petals or leaves that have me swooning.  I also love the way that using a macro lens adds such precision to some parts of the image and blur to others.  Here’s a glimpse from yesterdays stroll: