Yesterday as I was travelling home from London it rained. Not just a light shower but apocalyptic rain with thunder and lightning. The sky was dark as night. I stood under cover just outside the station as did many others, patiently waiting. No one moved: this was not rain that you could run through and get merely slightly damp.
So what does a photographer do in a situation like this? There’s no such thing as inappropriate weather for photography. You make the best of it and find an image.
And so I shot through the curtain of rain, as the road resembled a lake overlaid with a thin line of mist raised by the force of the deluge.
To appreciate the image, click on it to see a better quality enlargement.
LensScaper 
its a beautiful image 🙂 spellbound !
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Thanks you so much for your visit and for that comment. I’m glad you liked it.
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Great image Andy….we had one similar in Leeds last week – everyone sheltering in doorways…fortunately they don’t usually last long
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Thanks James. Ten minutes and this was over, although further heavy downpours continued. As an indication of how heavy this was, I was unable to reach my car by the usual route – the underpasses were flooded. Took me fifteen instead of ten minutes to reach it – thankfully largely dry by that time.
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Excellent shot! I am both annoyed and appreciative of the light pole in the middle. It sort of makes and breaks the photo (in a good way). It would be more aesthetic without it but also wouldn’t be so interesting. Definitely not one of the “glance over” images on wordpress.
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That’s a very interesting comment – thank you very much. The ‘pole’, I think from memory, is an information pole listing the position of bus stops. Originally it had a very obvious yellow stripe down it, which I desaturated in processing. I too was annoyed by it when I first spotted it during processing, but toned down I like the way that it breaks the image. Thanks for your visit too.
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You were lucky with that storm! I missed it in London and then missed it here! Your shot was unusual and daytime – I always like them at night – but then one takes lightning which becomes ‘the same old thing’.
I disagree about no weather being too bad for photography. If one goes out with a camera on one of those ‘grey days’ it is really hard to return with anything worthy.
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Thanks very much for that comment, Sally. I agree with what you say about photography on ‘grey days’. I was endeavouring to re-work the well-known quote about there being no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. Yesterday’s weather was certainly not a ‘grey day’ – really rather dramatic. On real ‘grey days’ I think what we have to do, is really use our eyes in a different way entirely, extracting detail out of the drabness. It’s always a hard test of our ability to see.
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In the click of your shutter amid the orderly structures in your composition Andy you’ve frozen that moment of hurried frenzy which happens in a sudden downpour … but this time it’s cars rushing in different directions instead of people 🙂
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Thanks so much for that Poppy. I’ve never tried photographing rain in that way before. I was quite pleased how it turned out – helped immensely by the way the background allowed the rain streaks to be visible.
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Your photo’s a beautiful complement to the one making the rounds of lightning striking the Shard during that same storm.
I don’t think the pole is obtrusive at all. The way the cars are arrayed around it, it bears some resemblance to an imaginative flower — pole as stem, cars as petals.
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Thanks for commenting Linda. I’ve seen the images of the Shard – impressive sight. I like your interpretation of the arrangement of the cars in the image. They do literally turn around that sign on their way to pick up or drop off at the station.
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Hi Andy,
i find your image very pleasing aesthetically as well as technically, more especially when viewed at it full 1500 x 986. It has repeating patterns, reflections, action, the curve of the kerb and yellow lines leave me wondering what is just round there behind the cab, all the bouncing raindrops, every ‘stair rod’ of rain . . . . it goes on and on! For me, nothing in there is a distraction, love it.
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Thanks very much Frank, for that fulsome comment. Clicking to see the full sized uploaded image does make a big difference to the quality, doesn’t it? This was really a quick ‘snap’ – it’s good to see how well it turned out, all things considered.
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Very nice, Andy….I love a good rain!
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Thanks Scott. Rain is easy to like if you can watch it and stay dry at the same time!
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Brilliantly captured Andy. You managed a really good composition too. Love the lights, the rain streaks and the little splashes. really shows the force of the rain.. Perfect!
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You’ve been busy Helen. Thanks for all your comments – I’ll get round to all the replies over the weekend. I don’t often stand and stare at the rain – but this was quite a downpour., Cats, dogs, stair rods etc!
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That’s what we’ve been having all day here !
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That is some rain Andy.The rain really pops.
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Many thanks Len
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Good God, Andy, that’s what I call a STORM!!! I feel wet sitting here looking at your great shot!
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‘Storm’ is the right word, Toad. Thanks for commenting.
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That’s a super image, Andy, which really encapsulates the feeling of being caught in a sudden stormy vertical downpour. I love the overall tones of natural grey punctuated by the orangey-red tail lights.
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