night owl
the scene
It was March 4th, and I’d just logged off work. I wanted to keep up with my running so even though it was raining I decided to head out.
It wasn’t too far but it showed me the stunning conditions going on in Boston that night. Once I finished my run, I made the call that the conditions were worth it and without even changing grabbed my gear and told Sophie I’d be back in a little while.
With my GFX and my tripod in tow, I began jogging back down Salem St. I didn’t know how long the conditions were going to last.
Location:
Boston, Massachusetts
Date:
March 4th, 2024
Camera:
Fujifilm GFX 100S
After reaching the Greenway, I began to compose myself. The fog and waves of rain weren’t going to be going anywhere fast. The first two shots weren’t all that inspired compositionally, but the light in them with the reflections is stunning, and the black and white only made it all the better.
After reaching the Greenway, I began to compose myself. The fog and waves of rain weren’t going to be going anywhere fast. The first two shots weren’t all that inspired compositionally but converting to B&W and focusing just on the light and reflections in the images really breathed new life into them.
From there I began walking further into Downtown, heading towards Government Center. Along the way I passed Boston Public Market and noticed this empty MBTA bus just killing time in front of the marketplace. I noticed what the reflections were doing in the window of the bus and took the shot. After that I moved a few steps back and lined up this second composition of just the final row of seats in tack sharp focus. Everything further into the scene thrust into a creamy and rich out of focus blur.
government center
These final two scenes came one after the other. First, I spent several minutes photographing the waves of rain throwing themselves down onto the square. I experiment with a few different exposures from long-to-short, but my personal favorite is this one at 1/13th of a second. I love the way this exposure captures the motion of the raindrops in-front of the light. you can see the swish and swoosh flow of the water as it falls. After those minutes I began getting cold and was ready to go home.
On my walk there I noticed a seating area I’d never noticed photographically before, and it was breathtaking. I think the part I liked the most and what made the image was the way there were two distinct halves of the scene. The left half of the square is bright and lit up from all the lamps. The bottom right half of the square was thrust into darkness contrasting wonderfully. All in all, it was a scene that I’d never thought worth shooting before – but on this night Government Center treated me well.
the tips
Now you may be wondering, “Zach – this is a great story, but I came here to hear about the tips you’d provide for photographing rain in the city, where are those?”
I’d tell you that you may have missed them in the story, but let me outline them more concretely.
- Firstly, when it’s raining and dark it can be hard (not impossible but hard) to capture color in a meaningful way in the city – depending on what you’re working with. If it’s dark, grey, and coming down hard lean into the dreary nature of the scene – shoot black and white. This extends beyond just cityscape photography and can work in rainy nature too. But the benefit of doing it in the city is that you get to focus on the light that’s there and the reflective surfaces. The lack of color makes the light the prime focus.
- Secondly, you should experiment with exposure. If when shooting “Flash Flood” I had only taken a long exposure at low ISO to reduce noise, I’d have missed out on the motion that makes the rain pop in the image. Instead, by being cognizant of the exposure time I was working with, I cranked the ISO to capture the motion of the rain, producing a vastly stronger image than had I not.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you in the next one.