Between bouts of rain, some moments of interesting light

With rainy weather predominating this week, I tried to catch some interesting clouds this afternoon, between the periods of heavy rain and featureless gray sky. Lately, the lakes and rivers are muddy every time I get a look, but the grass and flowers are happy and reflect bright colors. This shot was made with a tilt-shift lens, and I made use of both features: downward shift to include the base of the spray of wildflowers while keeping a level perspective, and downward tilt to extend the plane of sharp focus at an almost horizontal angle so that it encompassed the foreground foliage and the distant trees.

The rain returned in earnest a minute or so after I caught this moment. Lens: Canon 17/4.0 TS-E.

At Shelley Lake in Raleigh, rain began to fall as I set up a panoramic photo. I completed the three overlapping shots that I blended into the final image, then packed and left as a real downpour commenced. I wasn't in the mood to be a lightning rod. Lens: Canon 16-35/2.8 @ 16 mm.

Both of these were situations where a tripod was almost a necessity, in the first case to allow full control over the results of lens movements (tilt and shift), and in the second case to ensure good alignment of multiple images so that I could know what my upper and lower edges would look like when the whole composition was stitched together.

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