Creativity Prompt: Raindrop Season!
finding the poetry in raindrops to see more deeply and create something new
This post is short and sweet. Like the springtime fervor of an isolated monsoon roving the mountain west.
Spring in Colorado is alive.
Filled with the sound of clanging hail, howling wind, and rumbling thunder. Damp with the scent of wet earth, and flavored with the electricity of lightning on the air.
Clouds gather and scrape across the sky, leaking with dark and wispy rain-bands. And sunlight bends through and around monsoons to manifest rainbows and dramatic contrast.
And finally, if you’re really lucky: it rains.
I’ve been making these rain-layered photos so long I don’t remember how they started. It was probably an accident, trying to shoot something through a wet window and creating something entirely unexpected with the optics of focal lengths and light.
However it came to be, this long-time Colorado-girl became obsessed.
We’re just starting to see the seasonal afternoon buildup of moisture over the past few days, and my fingers are itching to create more photos with rain…
Raindrops on a window provide an interesting, cycle-of-nature-inspired creative prompt for composing less expected, layered photographs. Photos which celebrate the cycles of days, weather patterns and seasons.
Wet-window photos — at least in my mind — become a creative means to find beauty in the juxtaposition of nature and the man-made world.
If you’re curious to try then… yay! And if you’re feeling inspired, here are a few tips:
Good Foot Prompt: Raindrops
find a clear surface with raindrops on it (I’ve used train windows, car windows, home windows, a clear umbrella, wine-glasses — experiment with this!)
for this to really work, the background should provide some interest as well — what you’re creating here is a layer through which to photograph another composition and create something new that is greater than the sum of its parts
hold your phone camera a few inches from your wet surface, then move closer and farther from the rain layer until you see the image in a new, interesting way
move the camera around for the best pattern of drops in relation to your background (this might shift as you play with focus in the next step)
tap your finger on the screen on a raindrop and watch what happens, then tap between the raindrops to see how the image changes when focus shifts from up close to far away — both kinds of “shoot through” shots can be beautiful — lean into experimentation here!
think about the composition of the foreground and the background — can you use the raindrops to add a layer of interest or even to frame a specific subject or color? (if you missed my post about composition check it out HERE)
if you get a great closeup of a few raindrops, flip the photo upside-down and your view will be right-side-up inside the droplets — the world frozen in a droplet of water captured by your phone is a fairly mind-blowing thing
So… next time you hear a distant rumble of thunder or smell an approaching storm, get ready to play with photos in a whole new way. You’ll be surprised what you find in the patterns, light and beauty of this kind of photograph.
Oh hey! And I’m thinking about turning on the “chat” feature for these prompts in case anyone wants a critique or simply to share what they’ve created.
If that sounds interesting, if you’d like to participate, and/or if you have questions about this prompt, please let me know in the comments.
Thank you!
As always, keep making those good footprints my friends!
i was about to say the photos looked like paintings until i read the caption 😂 wow, i love your photos! and those raindrops (fourth set, lower right) look like they were suspended in the air. you are an artist! and thank you for the tips. i hope to make some of my own especially now that it's been raining for days. though i don't have that much talent haha nice to meet you here!
I love your rain photos, Jennifer! We haven’t had the rainstorms that you’ve had lately, however on April 1, here in Minneapolis, we had a very unusual blizzard for us. The wind blew the heavy snow against my window and this photo captures the brief beauty - almost like a pointillism painting!
But, apparently, I can’t share a photo on this platform. ☹️