“One must know the so-called ‘lesson of a downpour.’ A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything. ” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Above is a photo from the past weekend. As I said in a previous post, this past mid-February Saturday was a glorious day. I have no other words to describe it. Having come from temperatures of -30° C to 12° C in the span of a few days, sure brightens the spirit. This day went from mixed clouds, to bright sunshine, to a warm shower, back to sunshine.

I did not even realize that it was raining, as the air was filled with the sounds of meltwater everywhere. It was not till I looked up from photographing water running over the ice that I noticed the raindrops on the puddles which filled the outlines of where the trails are. Many sections of trail had turned to small rivers of ice water, trying to find their way downhill. Since the ground is still frozen, all the water was flowing on the surface, rather than being absorbed into the soil. This also created puddles with icy bottoms, which made hiking safely a challenge.

I stood for a while watching the raindrops falling into the puddles and watching the patterns of the ripples play across the surface. The surrounding trees were being reflected in the puddles and offered, what I thought, was an interesting composition, combining the elements of the path, the puddle, the rain, and the trees, in a single image. I will remember this moment for some time.

Nikon D300
Tamron 70-200 mm f/2.8 @ 180mm
1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250

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