Today started out like any other day – I got up my normal time and headed out the door to get the morning newspaper. A light drizzle greeted me, but that was it – no newspaper. After going through my email, I went out again – still no paper. A quick look at the headlines online, and then back out – still no paper. At this point, I was taking this as a sign that maybe I should stop and smell the roses – literally. However, since all I had at hand was some wildflowers and a lot of weeds, I took out my camera and focused on the raindrops.

Raindrop on a Leaf

With all of these pictures, I used my Tamron 28-300 mm lens at its longest focal length – 300 mm. This gives the greatest possible magnification and allows the raindrops to be the center of attention.

I also used natural light and a very small aperture (f/11 for this picture). The small aperture provides better depth of field, which is somewhat counter-intuitive as you look at the picture.

It clearly shows the background out of focus, but this occurs because of the long focal length. The small aperture keeps the leaf in focus, and ensures that if there’s any slight movement, it will still maintain focus.

The small aperture requires a longer shutter speed as well, though. I this case, I used a shutter speed of 1/8 second (ISO 200), even though it was quite bright out.

This next picture is of a purple wildflower that grows in clusters (maybe someone will tell me what kind of flower it is).

Purple Wildflower

Similar to the previous picture, this was shot with a long focal length (300 mm) and a small aperture (f/16 for 1/5 second).

There are several things I like in this picture. One is the tightly furled flower just above the main flower in the picture.

It’s hard to see, but that’s what makes it interesting to me. The other is the large drop of rain that’s sitting on the top flower.

Most of the drops are small and collected on the petals, but this drop is like a small bubble of water.

Raindrops

Finally, this last shot is of a blade of tall grass growing wild in the garden.

The raindrops are cascading off of the grass, providing interesting contrasts of colors, textures, and light.

This picture was shot at 300 mm, using an aperture of f/18 and a shutter speed of 1/4 second (ISO 200).

With all of these pictures, a tripod is absolutely necessary. The long focal length requires it since the depth of field is so shallow, but the slow shutter speeds also necessitate a tripod.

The late newspaper this day initially perturbed me, but also gave me the chance to take some time and enjoy a bit of nature after a rainfall.