Day 2 - a chance of rain
I started the day with some high hopes after checking the weather apps. It looked like we were going to be in for some heavy rain and I instantly started thinking of all the broken gutters and overflow pipes that I had seen yesterday in Durham.
I really want to be there in the heavy rain to try and capture some of the energy of the falling water as it gushes down these pipes to be released into the open air and falling to the river surface. But then I popped into Durham for breakfast with Jane and after heavy traffic due to a main road closure, we discovered that it was graduation day in Durham so th place was swamped!
Add to that the fact that it was still only spitting and nothing really heavy enough was imminent, I decided to risk waiting for more rain later this month and set out for a walk locally.
My aim today was to wander the fields to the local nature reserve and try to capture some of the many troughs and taps that they have in the fields. Luckily the first set of fields from the house are used to graze horses and the rear of the house fences have this wonderful series of old bathtubs which collect water:
Bathtubs
Later on in the walk I found a more commercial example with a water tap and ball cock assembly:
Water Trough
As I was walking round I noticed there were some trees where water was still beading - it had been a little while since the rain had fell but their leave were obviously coated in something that really helped the water bead.
The surface tension of water is fascinating. Because of the molecular structure of water and high Hydrogen content there is a lot if intramolecular attraction which creates high cohesion. Water has a particularly high level of surface tension when compared to other liquids and this allows it to bead and form menisci in very photogenic ways:
Water beads
I did not however have a tripod with me, so was not really able to focus stack the images. I did try but I was moving around too much, so that’s on the long list of things to try again!
Our local nature reserve is home to a series of lakes and wetlands, some of which are on different levels so there are sluice gates in place to aid in water management - this made an interesting subject, along with a deep water sign a little later on. I particularly liked that one as it really demonstrates how something so important to us can also be really dangerous.
sluice gate
Caution
It was around then that the heavens opened and we had some rain begin to fall - I tried to capture some raindrops in a puddle which was more challenging than I at first thought - another where a tripod may help. It’s made tricker due to the lower light that naturally comes with dark cloudy skies. This one is cropped and de-noised with a higher contrast in the edit to make the ripples pop:
ripples