Yesterday I struck gold – thanks to my wife. Not Gold, the substance, but photographic coins of gold.
It rained yesterday afternoon splattering the windows with spots of rain that clung to the glass improbably. And then the watery late afternoon sun shone on the windows and my wife shouted: ‘come and look at this’. She had been attracted by the little diamond glints from all the individual droplets of rain, backlit by the sun. I could see the beauty but I just couldn’t get a satisfactory image.
Then I started to see through the droplets, focusing on the distance and letting the raindrops drift into out-of-focus golden spheres. I felt I was getting closer to a half-decent image but still it seemed to elude me.
Something made me glance down onto the gable end of the garage roof, glistening in the sunlight and I had an idea. I had finally found an image and here it is below. Simply processed with just an increase in saturation to bring out the golden light.
It’s rather different from what my wife initially saw, but without her help I would never have seen this. We see quite differently most of the time, but sometimes – as in this case – she strikes gold for me, bless her.
LensScaper 
Credit well deserved!
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Thanks Ken – I will pass the message on.
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Great image! Love the patterns and lines….gold it is!
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That last image turned out really well in processing (thanks to Topaz Adjust). Thanks Sue
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Lovely images Andy.
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Thank you Edith. Always nice when images can be found from the warmth and comfort of one’s own home!
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Andy, you aren’t saying that the first two shots are not satisfactory images, are you? If so, you’ll get an argument from me. I like both of them very much, especially the first one. I do see the fun in the third one . . .
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I risk getting into trouble now! IMHO I wasn’t really satisfied with the first two images. They just didn’t hit the sweet spot. I could live with them as reasonable, but they just did not have that special something that I was looking for. For me, I think I found it in the third, but that is my purely personal and subjective opinion. Many thanks for your comments, as always, Linda
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Your opinion is, of course, the one that really counts, but I’m glad I got to see the other shots.
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nice
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Thank you Shimon
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I love your final image Andy and your description of the process of hunting down the image you wanted. I often see the potential for an image and when I take the shot, I’m not happy with it and am probably way too lazy as that’s when I usually give up. I think perhaps I need to work a little harder when I see some potential somewhere..
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There’s hunting and then there’s ‘hunting’. When you’re faced looking at a window and working how to photograph it, the extent of the ‘hunt’ is limited to a footstep to the left or a footstep to the right! I probably spent less than five minutes on this process and took about a dozen images, all on the G10. That contrasts quite markedly with the hunting down of the right image out in the wider landscape where there may well be quite a lot of moving about searching for the right viewpoint and waiting for the light and other factors to align. I know and read of some landscape photographer who go to incredible lengths to capture a single shot – Colin Prior’s name springs to mind. I’m not like that; by nature I’m a lazy photographer, I’m inclined to give up the hunt quite quickly and move onto something else. It’s all about time – how much time to spend on the one shot? As the economist would say: ‘what is the opportunity cost?’ Can I spend that time more valuably elsewhere? Decisons, decisions! Glad you like the final image, by the way, Adrian, and thanks for the comment.
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Andy, I agree with Linda that the first two images were good, too. But that last one? It was excellent. And I think I appreciated it more because you showed us the progression that you made to get it. I’m glad you wife saw the possibilities!
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Always good to have an extra pair of eyes on hand, especially when we think the same.
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Cool shots Andy. It is amazing to have additional eyes looking for subjects to shoot. I am always surprised when I shoot with other photographers and see what they find that I didn’t see, even if I was standing next to them.
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Thanks Len. Yes, we all see differently and that’s what makes Photography such a fascinating interest.
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Beautiful! Magical!
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