The prequel to Raindrops, but not as good. This is from October of 2005 (eight months earlier), same location. I couldn’t get closer to the drops because the camera I was using would not focus closer than four centimeters.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/2000, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-10-02T08:59:57-04, 2005-10-02_08h59m57

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Rain water draining out of a downspout after a storm. Photo from 2005.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/714, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-11-14T16:40:23-05, 2005-11-14_16h40m23

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This group of three birds is about to become two. The one that is taking off doesn’t like the other birds. So he is going to fly away from his problems. Unlike most humans who run away.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/400, F3.5, 28mm, ISO100, 2009-01-11T14:07:27-05, 20090111-190727rxt

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A wide-angle shot of a chaotic storm. The water is rolling off the roof above, which you can see at the top of the frame. I liked the feel of the scene.

I desatured 100% and added contrast with the curves tool, being careful not let the whites clip by watching my histogram. I didn’t mind losing details in the shadows, though.

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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/2500, F4, 18mm, ISO800, 2007-09-19T14:18:53-04, 2007-09-19_18h18m53

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More of the Raindrops series.

Raindrops coming off the roof of one of our sheds during a storm, with a background of trees and sky. This was one of the first shots I took with my Canon Rebel XTi last year; it’s so much more flexible than a point-and-shoot because you can freeze motion like this even in fairly low light. I like how the swirly drops turned out.

Same editing as Raindrops 1: added contrast and converting to black and white. No spot editing needed, which is always nice.

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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/4000, F4, 25mm, ISO800, 2007-08-10T15:32:14-04, 2007-08-10_19h32m14

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More of the Raindrops series.

Raindrops falling off my hand, with the high-contrast black and white effect I love. It’s my hand; I held it up so the rain water would run off it, managing the camera with the other hand (as I’m so good at). Since the sun was behind my, it made my hand a black silhouette. These droplets represent life, because hands and the human touch is the essence of life.

I added a touch of contrast, and removed the little bit of color that was there. This one was great out of camera. 1600 ISO speed, but there isn’t much noise for some reason. (Maybe because it was cool out?).

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/3200, F3.5, 18mm, ISO1600, 2007-08-31T15:47:26-04, 2007-08-31_19h47m26

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A bolt of lightning flashes through the dark sky. This was from the storm during my vacation. My grandmother forbade me from going outside ( ), so I shot this through the screen window. You can see the pattern of the window on the sky, though it’s out of focus. The blurred spots may have been water drops on the window. I snapped fifty photos, and was lucky enough to get this one as the lightning struck. I put some of my tips from Torrential Rain to good use.

I closed down all the way to F22 in aperture priority mode, yielding a 1.6 second shutter speed. I braced the camera against the window, and fired away. Before this, I set the exposure compensation to -2, so the lightning would not be too bright.

The source image looks brighter than it should. I purposely underexposed when shooting, so the lightning would not be too bright when it popped up. I shifted the colors to be more bluish, removed some dust spots, burned in the corners, and darkened a bit. That’s all the lightning needed!

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A coquina-rock fountain out front of the City Hall in Holly Hill, Florida. I used a 1/1600 shutter speed to freeze the water drops. The bright green lawn and yellow rocks matched well. I tried a shot from down low, with the water against the sky, but it was too dark and lifeless. This is certainly more attractive.

Just simple contrast improvements. I cloned out two distracting droplets at the bottom of the frame, and a red stop sign in the background.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1600, F3.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-06-12T11:12:14-04, 20080612-151214rxt

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These drops are falling off my roof at my house. It was sunny out but still sprinkling. I got these two drops just as they were falling, with a nice, discreet background. The title is because they look like crystals (they’re shiny and reflective ).

I added contrast, sharpness, and color, and darkened the edges.

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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/4000, F5.6, 47mm, ISO400, 2008-04-05T18:20:56-04, 20080405-222056rxt

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One of my best photos: raindrops, captured in motion. It took about 70 shots to get this; it’s of water drops falling off the roof of my back porch. The sun came out, so I had light to use a fast shutter speed (1/2000 second).

I sharpened and added contrast to make this perfect.

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Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/2000, F4.71, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2006-06-13T13:34:10-04, 2006-06-13_13h34m10

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Raindrops Wallpaper.
More of the Raindrops series.