Get into Rainfall Photography this April

Well that time is upon us, when our strange bout of arctic weather in March gives way to what we Britons more commonly recognise as good old April showers.

While April might be a short and quite dismal month for some, photographers across the nation delight in this golden opportunity to capture an entire spectrum of colour in the beautiful landscape of Britain through the light refraction of our seasonal little April showers.

Nothing quite recalls my childhood to me, than those close up photographs of rain on leaves, letterboxes, and streets pavements, which recall to mind days of playing out in the rain, falling in the mud and staring at the rain soaked world around me.

But enough of my childhood fancies, there is an actual art to taking photographs in the rain, and using the medium of our great British weather to capture some truly outstanding images.

Whether you are a country person or a city dweller there is an opportunity for you to capture a incredibly diverse range of shots which show how rain on different surfaces reflects light in different ways. Manipulating this medium can bring a hypnotic and even ethereal effect to your composition.

Rain: a true sign of springtime

Dramatic weather is always an interesting feature in photography particularly when in intersects or looms over a landscape either barren or inhabited. There is also a certain amount of fun to be had in capturing angry or interesting cloud formations, which take on so many different forms depending on whether they occur before, during or after a storm.

Rainfall can give a whole new perspective to a building you may have photographed before. Buildings, like people, can take on an entirely new characters when wet.

People are also great subjects in the rain. You can pinpoint a forlorn face in the pouring rain, or watch summer revelers make the best of a bad day by frolicking in the downpour. Some may be hurrying, excitedly or anxiously, to escape the rain, and others, above all children, like to splash about and have the time of their lives stomping in big puddles, which seem like rivers to very little boys and girls.

One thing to be eternally thankful for, as a photographer in any case, is the incredible variety of rain that we get here. There are heavy downpours akin to an exotic monsoon, that fall like a wall of water saturating everything it hits. There is rainfall which often seems like light spray with the help of a gentle wind, which makes grass glisten and nature sparkle. There are regular showers, and thunder storms, and a diverse range of environments to experience them in. The coastal regions of our fair isle, as well as the Lake District, are magical places to experience, and of course, photograph, the effect of rainfall on water surfaces. Cloud formations and rainfall in the peak district are also very special, allowing photographers to capture the barren hilltops and rocky crags in the rainfall, as the sun peaks through, and maybe even lit up by a rainbow.