Here in the UK its been a cool, wet spring and a damp-squib of summer so far much of the time. So rather than moping I decided to use the rainy day ‘indoor’ time to familiarize myself with the Canon EOS 5D. Gifted to me by my photographer brother-in-law since, sadly, his sight has faded significantly. It is a full frame DSLR so quite heavy and adding a 2x magnification lens to the 28-135 mm zoom lens, made it necessary to dust off a tripod.

I cut the last of the potted de Caen anemone coronaria and still wet from the rain, laid them down on a photography background without any arrangement .

There is a sadness seeing the comparison with their first flush of youth, and the bicoloured blush on white (shot with Ricoh GRiii)

Now well past their best, seedheaded or losing the last petals they have gained that wabi sabi character and interest of form instead

Despite the lovely tints still present in the faded blooms , the photos worked well in greyscale, especially with the contrast of white petals and black hearts

Who gave us flowers?
Heaven? The white God?
…Nonsense!
Up out of hell,
From Hades;
Infernal Dis!
…Dis within the depths!
D. H. Lawrence ~ Purple anemones

Bringing the outdoors in, is one way to beat the rain. Also there are already plenty of subjects within reach as in this 5 Indoor Photo projects. And with some equipment protection, going out and about in the rain can offer even more scope. No doubt there will be more rainy day projects to come.

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain ~ H.W. Longfellow