What to do with those pictures

I've been practicing photography over the past few months, and occasionally I get an interesting shot. Then the question arises, “now what do I do with it?” My solution is to figure out a way to make it into a scrapbook layout. I could throw it down on the page and report the who, what, when, where, and why like a newspaper journalist. However, I'd rather just write about a topic of interest and use the photo to complement the journaling.

I took this photo from the inside of our garage during a rare violent sun shower. I say rare because here in New England, rain usually comes as an icky, cold drizzle that lasts all day long. This rain, on the other hand, came down heavy but lasted only about 15 minutes before shopping abruptly. That gave me just enough time to grab my camera, set it up, and get some shots.

Taking photos of raindrops is all about luck. Of course, my “luck” was improved with a 300mm lens and a camera that can shoot 6 frames per second. I just held the shutter button down as the camera snapped away as violently as the rain hit our driveway. Out of about 100 shots, this was one of the few ones that caught a drop in focus. I added contrast in the GIMP to make it stand out (Color > Brightness/contrast).

I used this photo to write about rainy days in general. The journaling reads:

I've heard people say that there is no such thing as good and bad weather -- there is just different kinds of good weather. I agree with this wholeheartedly. For instance, I'd much rather jog in the rain than jog in the hot sun. I just need to make sure I don't carry my iPod or wear a white t-shirt. Rainy days also provide a great excuse to stay inside and catch up on reading or engage in my indoor hobbies (like scrapbooking). Indeed, I wouldn't want every day to be the same and I have learned to appreciate them all.

I believe that there is always something to write about any picture. If it doesn't come to me right away, I'll put it away for a month or two and then come back to it. These photos are meant to be used, not to just sit on memory cards. Thanks for looking!