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Friday Slide Show: A Walk To The Mailbox Share This on LinkedIn   Share This on Google   Tweet This   Forward This

18 January 2019

It was just after 1 p.m. earlier this week when we realized we had to put a bill in the mailbox by the official pickup time of 2 p.m. It had been raining and it wasn't going to stop. So we made the best of it, putting on a light jacket with a hood and, just to make it interesting, packing the Olympus E-PL1 along for the walk up the street.

Olympus is proud of the reliability of their gear. And while the E-PL1 is not water resistant, we're not particularly shy about getting a drop or two of the precious wet stuff on any of our gear.

We do shelter the camera under our jacket as we walk around but when we line up a shot, it gets as wet as we do.

We've tried using a rain cover. They do keep the camera dry. And if we had to sit out in the rain for prolonged periods watering for wildlife to splash by, we'd succumb to one. But they are awkward to use on the street, their hand holes inhibiting a quick grab.

So we like to keep things as close to normal as possible.

Manual mode frightens people but it can be the safer bet when the light doesn't change and the subject does.

We use a Custom SLR slim Strap as we usually do, slung over our shoulder but under our coat (so nobody can scoot by, pulling it off us). Works fine in an urban environment.

These were all manual exposures because the light wasn't going to change and we didn't want the exposure to drift if the subject was dark or light. Manual mode frightens people but it can be the safer bet when the light doesn't change and the subject does.

It's a walk we've taken many times in 16 years. On a sunny day (or even a foggy one for that matter) nothing jumps out at us, screaming for their close-up.

But in the rain, it's different.

The streets shine, the gutters run like creeks, the painted iron and the formidable bronze around here both drip with jewelry, the dark lamp posts are camouflaged with patterns from the rain. Everything looks different.

When we got back to the bunker, we took off our boots and hung our coat up to dry in the garage. Then we dried the camera off with a microfiber cloth, leaving the lens extended so any moisture we missed would evaporate outside the housing itself.

Before we sat down, we tossed our jeans in the drier for five minutes. While they were drying, we transferred the files to our laptop. Quite a sight, we imagine.

Then we ran these Raw captures through Lightroom, as usual. It was quick work to bring out the details that attracted us on the street.

We enjoyed working on them so much we almost forgot about our pants. But the buzzer on the dryer brought us back to our senses.


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