Playing in the rain.

I remember as a kid that whenever it rained during the warmer months that I would grab a Popsicle stick, an empty 1/2 pint milk carton, or anything that would float. I’d go to the front of the house, raincoat on, or not, and play in the water as it ran down the street. As our street was composed of dirt and cinder, it was easy to build a dam and pretend to have a boat trapped in the reservoir and then, all of a sudden, have the occupants of my ‘boat’ in peril, seeing them tumble over the edge of the broken ‘dam’! What great fun that was. Also, walking to school, one could not pass up the opportunity to step into every puddle possible and end up at school with waterlogged sneakers that itched and smelled during the day.

It’s raining outside. It’s 42 degrees. What a perfect day to take pictures, to play in the rain! For the past few weekends, it has been raining off and on during the weekend. A couple of weekends ago, it rained all of Saturday and Sunday. This weekend, the same. I had it in my mind to perhaps visit Earl’s stomping ground, Bull Hole, which is about 80 – 90 minutes drive from home. I opted instead for what is becoming one of my favorite spots, Van Landingham Glen, which was the subject of my SoFoBoMo project last year.

I arrived sometime around 8:00 AM. It was raining, but only slightly. Thinking back to a previous post, I thought about which lens would I use. Would I use the wide-angle, the Lensbaby, the 18-270, or a combination of lenses. I decided to not decide at the moment and see what I saw when i got into the glen.

As I entered the glen, I found, as expected that the small creeks that are normally a trickle, were going pretty vigorously. The sound was wonderful. I just stood there for a moment, in the rain, listening to the rain’s rhythm tapped out upon the leaves, that wonderful melody provided by the stream, and an occasional heartfelt lyric delivered by a bird. Life at its finest.

I started with my 18-270mm lens. As I had on my over boots, I just plunged right into the stream and set up for a few shots. Normally, a stream will hold my interest for a very long time, but i had a distinct sense of been there, done that, and I wanted to try something different. So, I took the Lensbaby out of the bag and committed to using it for the entire rest of the shoot.

Immediately, I was flooded by a bit of anxiety. It came in the form of the thought: “You’re not going to get anything that you like with that Lensbaby. You know that!”. I almost changed back, but, as it turns out, I’ve been listening to more Byron Katie this week and I immediately questioned that thought:

Is that true? No! It’s not true. I could get some good pictures with it.
How do you behave, what happens, when you believe this thought? I feel anxious, unsure, and want to play it safe.
Who would you be without this thought? I’d be playful, willing to try different things, and just happy to be there, regardless of the outcome.

There’s more to the questioning, etc., but I’ll leave you to read that. Just follow the link. So, I left the Lensbaby on and for the next 75 or so minutes, I played. I was happy. I was wet. I was ‘there’!

Did I get any pictures that I liked with the Lensbaby. I’m not sure. I’ve not looked at them yet. I’m sure that there are probably a few keepers, but that wasn’t the point in the exercise. You’ll have to tune in tomorrow to see.

The point was to enjoy myself and, as I loved to do, go outside and play in the rain.