I for one have a tendency to leave my camera at home on days that are heavy laden with rain.  It makes sense.  You’ve got to get yourself one of those fancy rain enclosures for your camera or have a significant other, who is willing and friendly enough to hold an umbrella over your head.

However BBC News recently challenged its photographically inclined readers to send in their best rain/puddle shots and the results, in my opinion, are pretty astounding. 

Rain and wetness are, if not magical, then at least transforming.  Dull pebbles at the beach or in a stream become magnificent” gems.”. Urban settings come alive with the reflection of street lights, especially at night. And then there is the blurred out image as sheets of rainwater run down a window.  It can be quite enthralling, and the BBC News series has a number of just beautiful photographs.  My personal favorites are Neil Harvey’s picture of a woman sitting and having a beverage at an outdoor table, under a massive umbrella, and talking on the cell phone  untroubled by the deluge around her. And then there is Sambid Vilas Pant’s just wonderful image of a two drops or rainwater forming at the tip of a spoke on an umbrella. 

And it is raining heavily today.  That gives me an idea…