Let me be up front about this: when the weather turns nasty, it is rare that I’ll be out in it, any more than the next person, and I don’t make a habit out of many of the practices I’ll be talking about here. So don’t take this to be preachy or anything. But if you find yourself itching to get out and chase photos but blocked by weather that’s less than ideal, or worse, on a trip or vacation and faced with the dismal kind of conditions that you really didn’t want to see, this post is to point out that you’re not completely at a loss, and in fact, there are some interesting opportunities to be had.
There are three primary aspects of using weather itself as a factor or even a subject in your images: light quality, mood, and the elements themselves.
Light quality. Many people seem to think that bright sunny days are ideal for photography; many people are wrong. While such conditions can be useful for a handful of subjects, bright light increases contrast, producing dark shadows, and it’s not hard to have conditions that fall outside of the dynamic range that the camera can capture. When this happens, pale subjects like flowers, fur, feathers, snow, and even skin can get bleached out to pure featureless white, while dark subjects (largely the same list except for the snow, unless you get really crappy snow where you live) can drop off the other end of the scale and go pure black. Shadows across faces can become war paint in the image, people start squinting, and even deep, rich colors of flowers can get overexposed and washed out, losing any delicate aspect.
As the humidity increases, however, the light softens; hazy to light overcast conditions are quite useful for portraiture and garden shots, anything with a wider range of colors, and the deeper the humidity gets, the less contrast is produced, so it becomes easier to work with high-contrast subjects. Even white flowers and snow, which require contrast and shadows to show their textures and contours, can benefit from light overcast that prevents the highlights from going too bright. These conditions, however, will not produce much of anything from the sky, typically making it pale grey to pure white in images.
Best rule to follow, but feel free to break as required for results: when the light is high-contrast (very bright with distinct shadows,) look for low-contrast subjects; this is a good time to find those textures, but not things with a lot of detail, especially not a lot of shadows (like foliage.) When the light is low-contrast (light to full overcast,) seek the subjects with high-contrast: lots of different colors, the finely-detailed things that throw a lot of shadows, the clash of textures and colors of the forest floor. Also note that, on bright days, you can find these conditions in shade, whether open shade like under a lone tree or on the shady side of a building, to deep shade like a thick forest canopy.
The other aspect of light quality is its color hue. Direct sunlight is, to our perception and purposes, white (it’s actually quite green, for a bit of trivia, but we don’t perceive it that way.) But for instance, near sunrise and sunset, humidity and thicker atmosphere filter out the blue and green registers, leaving light that becomes more yellow, orange, or red, depending on the exact conditions. These are colors we consider warm, inviting, pleasant, optimistic; this is a great time for portraiture and most scenics. Cloud cover, however, filters out the reds and yellows, producing more of a blue hue, and with greater cloud thickness much of the color is leached out. This is cold, which is also somber, moody, sometimes uninviting. This color cast personifies bad weather.
And, we are exceptionally attuned to recognizing these, even when we’re not at all conscious of them. So when they appear in images, we can get the feel of the weather from them, even if there is no direct example of the weather within. To use these, you need to know something about the white balance function. The setting for full sunlight is essentially for white light, and usually produces no alteration to what the camera captures. Settings for things like open shade, overcast, and of course the various artificial light sources are made to counteract the color cast that these all impart, and actively skew the color register of the image in the opposite direction. Auto White Balance samples the image itself, looking to see if any particular color seems dominant, and skews the image towards a neutral point – sometimes this works, sometimes this is badly fooled by images that don’t have a wide variety of colors. My point here is, if you want these moody colors from the natural light conditions to appear as they are, use the setting for full sunlight.
Side note: You can use other settings to skew the color register in a way that enhances mood, even when it’s not actually present. All it takes is knowing your RGB color wheel, what the conditions normally produce and what color is opposed to it. See this page for more details.
And that brings us to mood. The color register of the image can do a lot to provoke a particular mood, but you can also do this with elements and setting. The first thing to recognize is how much our moods are affected by weather in the first place, so it’s not hard at all to compose something evocative. Perhaps, when the light is somber and dismal, you find the subject that matches this, like the abandoned house or overgrown woods. Or maybe you’d prefer the anachronism instead, heavy rain on the bright colors of the amusement park rides, icicles on the lifeguard’s chair – tell me these don’t have a story all their own. Some subjects can do well in any kind of weather, such as old cemeteries – this is the time you start noticing the things you might normally have passed by. Fog is such a wonderful thing to work with, not just for the mood itself, but because it can soften or mask distracting elements, heightening isolation, and fog at night is fantastically fun, especially with a well-chosen light source to shine through it.
It can help to think in terms of metaphor. Rain equates with tears of course, but also sweat, cleansing, the end of seasons, and even rebirth. Snow is a clean white blanket, but also silent, and often denotes the end of the year, and holidays; on any rustic bit of tackle it takes on a Currier & Ives vibe. And there’s the animal tracks it retains, often a story in themselves. Storm clouds themselves are virtually always ‘ominous,’ and speak of turmoil and change. Put any of these together with an interesting subject and they have a significant impact.
Elements. The weather elements themselves can often make great photographic subjects. Fog and mist will bring out every spiderweb in the vicinity. Frost, icicles, and hailstones can all have wonderful textures and appearances, especially with a little control over the lighting. Raindrops and dewdrops don’t need any promotion, but think about the wet surfaces of roads, or trees. Not only is the contrast increased, giving bright highlights and deep blacks in light conditions that usually don’t provide for them, they can reflect headlights, light spilling from the window of the house, or even a campfire for a touch of color. Snowflakes can be tricky – they melt upon touching a surface unless it’s had lots of time to cool down, and in the typical piles of accumulation they’re hard to make out individually, but this is where the tips of plants or spiderwebs come in, suspending them alone.
One of the handier things about concentrating on the smaller, individual elements is that you don’t have to go far to use them, or find an appropriate, photogenic subject like an old house; they can be shot right out your back door. But there’s another type of element that is also useful, and that’s the kind that communicates what the weather is like. The fluffed bird that tells you it’s cold, the bent trees or white-capped waves that speak of the wind, the scarf or upturned collar, the diagonal streaks of rain. Since photography is a visual medium, finding the visual elements that convey to the viewer the non-visual aspects is always a plus – make them hear the wind, feel the chill, taste the rain. Give them everything you can to make them feel like they’re right inside it.
Speaking of inside it… well, there’s a limit, isn’t there? Especially when you’re brandishing your camera equipment. Don’t get so hung up on the shooting that you’re taking the chance of damaging your gear. Electronics can be very susceptible to the damp and humidity that usually defines ‘weather,’ so keep it all as dry as possible. Plastic bags or those weather covers help, but aren’t ever perfect – keep a towel handy at least. When you go indoors, put the equipment someplace to help dry it out entirely – blown air greatly increases the drying rate. If your camera bag has gotten even damp, take all of the equipment out and let the bag dry thoroughly for at least a day, since it can trap moisture and drive it into the camera otherwise (I speak from experience.) See also the cold weather tips here (and, for good measure, the hot weather tips) to help with things like condensation, dying batteries, and being prepared for the conditions yourself.
Better still is not to be out in the weather directly, but just before (tempting fate) or just afterward. These also have the benefit of producing the most interesting cloud activity, especially the sun breaking through a gap, and of course rainbows. Even when doing this, however, be prepared for a follow-up squall or temperature drop.
A note about getting cloud detail. Even in heavy overcast, the clouds will probably be a lot brighter than any terrestrial subject, so quite often you have to decide which one you’re going to get an exposure of, since you won’t get both in the same shot (unless you want to mess with HDR, which stands a good chance of looking fake.) For nice cloud detail, you will probably have to meter off of the clouds themselves, and this will likely render everything else dark, perhaps a silhouette against them, so picking a foreground subject that works well this way is good insurance. Bracket your shots however, or shoot a sequence where you meter off the clouds, the ground subject, and a few mixes in between. By the way, for a subject that’s not too big or too far away, a shot of fill-flash may help bring the light on it closer to the background sky, but this may take a lot of experiments to prevent it from looking fake.
A flash can also be used to bring out raindrops or snowflakes, especially during long exposures at night when they wouldn’t normally show up (the light being too low, and the rain or snow moving across the frame too fast to leave behind enough of an exposure.) Be warned, though, that if the flash is too close to the lens of the camera, you will likely produce out-of-focus ‘orbs’ – this is very true for fog and mist, so if you must use a light for those, try using a handheld flashlight off to the side, or getting the flash unit well away from the camera. Hand-triggering it through the ‘test’ button during exposure times of 1 second or more can work well. Also, this is a great time to experiment, because the conditions are different and you’re never quite sure what you might end up with.
Lightning photography is best done at night, when you can lock the shutter open and wait for the bolts to appear without worrying too much about over-exposing the frame. It’s tricky, and I’ve covered it before so I’ll link you to that post (and another, just for the story and images.) It’s best with some foreground subject, provided you can find one and get lined up with the storm appropriately, which is harder than you might imagine – I have yet to do this to my satisfaction. But in regards to that spoiled vacation thing, ocean views are great for seeing distant storms, either approaching or receding, and shooting out over a marina or harbor just adds a lot of atmosphere.
Also, because of that muted color from overcast skies, this isn’t a bad time to think about black & white photography, which can add some mood all its own. There’s no reason to switch the camera over to monochrome, since this is easy enough to do after the fact, but what does help is thinking in those terms, knowing you’re going to remove the color and so looking for the contrast instead. This page may help with both planning the shots and what to do with them afterward.
So if you’re stuck with the weather, treat it as a challenge, and see what you can come up with. Good luck, and have fun!
It’s funny how long it took me to get these, since you’d think I’d have the opportunity every full moon. But this also requires clear weather on those nights, a temperature comfortable enough for me to want to be out standing around waiting on the long exposure times, and both a sleep schedule and the desire to go out at midnight or so – these just hadn’t come together previously. If I remember right, a couple of previous occasions had been postponed because I had no readily-available headlamp, which has been rectified now – in fact, I got to try out two new lights, one of which a christmas present, and both worked quite well.
All of these, with one exception [didn’t I just say, “No text”?], are from this year – the exception is the first one above, since I didn’t have any sunrise shots for the gallery and haven’t gotten any in a while. That one is, like, eleven years old or so, from Florida. Most of the rest are plants, because that’s where I find the colors.
While UNC’s Botanical Gardens are dedicated mostly to native NC plants and replicating natural habitats, this one was more decorative and landscaped. It’s all a matter of taste; I prefer the natural-looking stuff more, and actually hate most of what passes for landscaping anymore, especially the lone decorative tree in a mound of pinestraw mulch – I have no idea how that became the standard in the US, but it’s unbelievably pathetic, like using a kindergarten drawing as a decorative plan. Lest I give the wrong impression, this one was quite a bit better than that, with a pleasant layout and some real effort put into aesthetics, but it still says “artificial” too much for me. It is a favored locale for weddings and bridal shoots, but they charge a ridiculous fee just for a portrait permit, and because of this I have removed all references to them from my posts – sorry, no free advertising on this end.
We’re not talking high art here, but I just wanted to point out something curious. The red in this image takes up a tiny percentage of the total area, but because it forms such a marked contrast from both its immediate surroundings and from the tones of the entire frame, it grabs attention – we notice it, but there’s no reason to look at it closely because it’s immediately apparent what it is. Since it’s there, however, it has to take a balanced place in the framing; too close to the edge, and it would seem cut off and perhaps subconsciously uncomfortable to the viewer, while putting it closer to the center implies there’s more that we should be paying attention to, without good reason. Yet without that dribble of red, the image would appear (even more) lacking in color, heavy emphasis on the grey-blue cast of overcast days – it was actually in deep shade during bright but hazy conditions, the same conditions as the weathervane pic above. It illustrates the difference between a dominant shape or subject within the frame, and a dominant contrast element, which can be quite small and still effective. It also demonstrates how small a distracting element could be – say, if this was a car in the background, or a person in a bright jacket. It is important for a photographer to see these things, not as discrete ideas like “waterfall” and “berries,” but as elements of color and contrast that will draw the eye, for good or for bad.
On to the ducks. Yeah, I know, mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are probably the most common duck in North America, so no remarkable skills here, but I liked the composition with the lighting, and this does show the sexual dimorphism that is common in bird species and very pronounced in many ducks – the female is in front, the male behind. The males typically have the bright, elaborate plumage to attract the attention of the females, who perform the selection of mates. The plumage is an indication of health, as well as simply standing out – even we, a completely unrelated species, can spot an unhealthy bird from a short distance. More interesting is how the colors work, since they only appear this bright in direct sunlight, having a certain refractive quality to the feathers (also note the pintail at the top of the post.) In diffuse light to shade, however, the colors almost vanish, becoming so muted they only garner a tiny percentage of the attention, allowing the birds to roost in the shade safely without sending out much of a signal to predators. As is hinted at in the image, this pair were nestled in under a tree, and only the angle of the late afternoon sun threw this bright light upon them; the same conditions (in almost the exact same location) can be seen in this 
Just an experiment in the bamboo grove, using a 19mm focal length, f8 with focus about 2 meters, and setting the camera on the ground aiming up, so taken blind. Out of several attempts, I like this composition best. Moreover, it shows no visible evidence of the graffiti that adorns most of the stalks, because the garden is frequented by college students who, on the whole, have not grown the fuck up yet. There’s not much you can do to bamboo when trying to carve your initials into the trunks, except produce a weak discoloration, but this is apparently enough for those who are desperate to leave their mark but lacking in any talent whatsoever – not everyone can be a pop star (really got the Old Man Thing going today, haven’t I?) I think next time I’ll go with at least f16 and a shorter focus, since it would be better to have the bottoms of the stalks in focus; the tops going out of focus would likely enhance the height aspect. Should’ve experimented more.
There is a resident great blue heron (Ardea herodias) at the gardens, quite possibly the same one I’ve photographed numerous times before, and it is remarkably mellow around the visitors. Great blues are variable species in this regard, since in most areas you’re likely to have a very hard time getting within fifty meters or so, but if they’ve become accustomed to human presence (usually through the prospect of easy food,) they might allow 
That’s enough links to make you think I’m alternating font colors for the post, so let’s see if I can manage to avoid any more. The easiest way is by not writing much beyond this, so I’ll leave you with an appropriate image from a few days back, as one of the cats peered out from beneath the tree through a gap in the branches. This was their first christmas tree, and they were very well behaved with it though, granted, we did not put any ornaments within easy reach. They appeared to enjoy the day as well, since they had plenty of wrapping-paper balls to slap across the floor, and a Nerf-like gun shooting fascinating darts for them to chase (yes, it was my gift, and yes, I’m 49 years old – what’s your point? You got something to say?)
What I had was eventually determined to be a 
The red rock with the snail’s eggs, seen behind the pipefish above, was a notably bare exception (though it appears in a ridiculous number of my images,) since most of the rocks I had in the aquarium were ‘living’ rock – in other words, bearing living matter thereon. I was startled to see one of the stones I collected, early on in the tank’s history, sprout a garden of little anemones soon after putting it in the water; it had spent the short trip back from the lagoon on the floor of the car out of water, because I hadn’t realized it was occupied. The anemones retract protectively when threatened and become 
