In The Pouring Rain

Good story Vincent and I absolutely love the vertical lines you managed to create with the shutter speed!! Very cool, to use that old word. In a perfect world, I'd like to see it w/out the branches on the LHS, but of course, that would be nearly impossible (I think) to do without destroying the rain lines.

Hi Vincent !
I used to find the rains depressing, but that was before I ventured into photography, later on I started finding them exciting, especially, when shooting people.
Coming back to picture, it's a brilliant capture with fabulous rain effect, but I feel the tree on the right is reducing that effect.
Jagdeep Rajput

Vincent, this is very well done. This image is very engaging to me. I feel as if I am there with the reedbuck. Superb work.

PS Thanks for helping with my iguana image, much appreciated.

Appreciate the informative post and the image is outstanding. The branches on either side is great and the effect the raindrops have on the image is wonderful.

Hey Vincent,

I like the shot - the rain adds a lot of atmosphere to the shot (literally and figuratively! ) and I think your subject positioning and choice of a vertical composition are spot-on. I personally don't have any problem at all with the vegetation on either side of the frame - to my eye there's enough out-of-focus background behind the rain streaks to make them dominant enough in the image and I think the vegetation helps provide a "natural" framing effect!

I have to respectfully disagree (sort of!) to one comment you make in your discussion. You say:

I used high continuous shooting (10fps) to increase the chance of creating at least some sharp images.

While I acknowledge that you go on to say mirror lock-up would have been preferred, I'm not 100% sure I think going to such a high frame rate with this slow of a shutter speed and with a 500mm lens (or longer) to get "at least some sharp images" is a good idea. You correctly point out that mirror slap alone can produce unsharpness, but I would go further and say that shooting at 10 fps with a long lens can REALLY exacerbate the problem - those long lenses are like resonating chambers and at 10 fps you can REALLY get the vibrations going (unless that lens is absolutely bolted down).

On a broader and more philosophical note, in the last couple of years I've seen an increasing number of shooters go very general with the "machine gunning" approach (as opposed to a more selective shooting style) - and they normally justify it with the "at least SOMETHING will be sharp" philosophy. It's my opinion this has lead to some very sloppy field techniques being used and, a lot of very unsharp images (or, if sharp, shots that have missed the "decisive moment" which makes good shots stand out). We probably all "let it rip" with flight and/or action shots, but with a more static subject I'm not sure it's the greatest idea!

Anyway...just wanted to provide a counterpoint and food/fodder for thought and/or debate. But whatever you did worked very well in this instance!

Cheers...

Brad

Brad, thanks for your comment. Don't get me wrong I am not a 'machine gunner' and do not intend to advocate that kind of shooting style as a general approach to any situation, but in certain situations I do take that approach because I feel it can work. With very slow shutter speeds, as was the case here, pressing the shutter button will mostly introduce enough shake with a 500mm lens to make the image unsharp. Now the fact that you do not need to press the shutter button to make a second (and third) exposure reduces at least that shake. Your theory about the lens becoming a resonating chamber makes a lot of sense and probably adds to the mirror slab vibrations. Like I said the best approach would have been to use MLU, combined with a remote cable release and another bean bag on top of the lens. It would be interesting to do some comparisons in a test set-up.

Wow, great image! I love how you made the rain streak like that! I also really like the sharpness of the Reedbuck, the colours of the background, and how he's looking at you. The picture looks awesome in the larger version!

I like that you can spot the rain right away (looks like a real downpour) and that the rain soaked animal still stands out in the frame. Well done, a very interesting image.

Nice atmosphere!Really shy antilope, 1/40s without tripod! Congrats!

Marvelous Image Vincent, I like the rain effect and rich colors. I agree that the branches on left are unbalancing the image for my taste but once again well done.