Whilst I haven’t done any photography this week, mainly due to poor weather, I have been processing some old images. What I realised whilst doing this was that I had a nice collection of local images, captured in we photographers like to call “Bad Weather”. But the reality is that with the right processing, even poor weather can create nice imagery.
Here’s one example on a slightly misty from the canal near to my house. I can walk here in a round 15 minutes.
Previously I ignored this image, viewing it as a snapshot. My problem was that I wasn’t viewing the shot as a finished image in my mind. But after figuring out how I wanted to process this shot I was extremely pleased with the result. So much so that I went on to process others, including the one I showed in last week’s blog post.
Here’s another example of a local shot that I had ignored because I couldn’t work out how I wanted the finished image to look. It takes about an hour to walk here.
And another, about 30 minutes on foot.
What’s interesting about this exercise is not that I’ve found lots of new photos in my archive, but that I’ve inspired myself. I’ve found a new enthusiasm to shoot locally, and when the conditions are poor. Now I just need the heavy rain to slacken off enough to take the camera out.
This Week’s Video Tutorial
Continuing with the theme of shooting locally and ignoring images, this week’s video shows another example.
I ignored this image originally because I think it looks ugly and I didn’t know how to process it. What surprised me is how little processing it required to get to the finished photo once I thought about it.
Here’s the link to the video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/2nI7TpiTnUo). I think it’s worth watching even if you’re not a Capture One user.
February Newsletter
My Lenscraft February newsletter goes out in the early hours of tomorrow. There’s an interesting mix of tutorials and things that I’ve found on the internet. If you haven’t already subscribed, sign up on my website (https://lenscraft.co.uk/lenscraft-photography-blog/photography-newsletter/).
I hope that you like the photos and video and have a great weekend.
Oh yes, don’t forget to follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/robin_whalley/). I publish a new image most weekdays and you can see a few more of my “local bad weather” shots.
The Lightweight Photographer 
I am partial to these kinds of images because I have created my share of those, particularly in fog. Rain, most notably when there is also wind, is another story: although I would like to shoot in the rain, I am often afraid to ruin my equipment. Funny that your last two images could well have been taken here in the Central Valley of California. Thanks for the reminder (that we can actually get nice photos in bad weather), its raining outside and I am avoiding making photography plans for the weekend.
It’s a small world and quite amazing that you can travel around it and find similar scenes thousands of miles away. I was struck when visiting New Zealand how much it looked like the UK. I’m with you on the combination of wind and rain. I hate that because it’s so hard to keep the lens dry.
Love your ‘bad weather’ images … especially the last 2 foggy scenes. On cloudy days we can photograph all day since too much contrast is not an issue. Great post!
Thank you. That’s much appreciated.