Practical Photography Series #1 : After-The- Rain Photo Essay

Wet summer 2011 in the Philippines allows me to play with my camera after the rain. The first subject that caught my attention was the droplets of rain on leaves, branches and flowers of plants that are growing in our backyard.

The photo and video features are programmed in digital cameras. Since it has automatic features, you can play and control the intensity, coolness and awesomeness of your photos.

Digital cameras have the following:

1. Exposure -Take note of the natural lighting or sunlight, its glare that can affect the resulting photos.
2. Resolution - For a more detailed photos, you can control the resolution on its high, standard and low mode.
3. Stabilization - Some of the objects or animals you're going to photograph are moving, you must turn this feature on in order to control the movement of your subject. It will also avoid hazy results.
4. White Balance - You can put the image on daylight scene, tungsten, fluorescent, sepia, night mode or automatic.
5. Motion Detect - If it is on, you can just focus on the moving subject and your digital camera that will trigger the shutter to take photos.

The ISO (International Standardization Organization) system for cameras aid in detecting the speed of photographic films specially on manual cameras.

In digital cameras, the above properties combine the system to help the owner edit, erase or re-shoot the subject if errors or movement occur while taking the shots. As for manual camera, the perfect ISO for daylight is ISO 200.

Since digital camera is equipped with automatic point-shot properties, blurred shots are not problems anymore.

Here are some of my shots I transferred on my desktop computer and edited for a more clear presentation.

What's so fascinating about a rain droplet about to fall on the tip of a leaf? Well, you can magnify the surroundings on it. The reflection says it all. It's so relaxing, after hearing the sound of rainfalls on the roof of your home.

These are my best shots, so far.

Just outside our makeshift lanai is the thorny euphorbia. I noticed these three droplets. So, without a hush, I get my handy digi-cam for a quick shot. I feel like making a story about this three droplets or a poem perhaps.

My cousin who gathered the ripe fruits of kapok or cotton tree left this one. I check on it after the rain and there it was..full of crystal-clear droplets. It's pleasing to the eyes and you can make a wallpaper out of it on your desktop or laptop computer's screen.

Droplets on carabao grass are amazing. I used to ignore it due to the difficulty of focusing my digi-cam on it. I hope I did justice on my shots.

My favorite is taking shots on droplets from taro or gabi leaves. It's round-perfect. If I have a more powerful camera of more popular brands, I'll give it a more dramatic presentation.

This Droplets Photo Essay is just the first in the series of the subjects I;m going to feature here.

You can also do this, if you have the camera. You don't have to be a professional photographer in order to capture some highlights in your home and surroundings.

Enjoy and please leave some comments.