After the rain

There have been some really intense storms around Armenia as of late. Massive cracks of thunder, incredibly electrical storms that have purple bolts of lightning scatter across the open sky. I missed these. Those storms being such a beautiful thing to witness, to really feel the strength of the Earth and how powerful it can be. Yesterday, during one of those storms, I decided to set the camera up to take a few shots of things once the rain slowed down. During these storms, the downpours are so heavy that you don't really hear much else beyond the rain, and the sheer impact those many huge droplets produce. Especially in this region of which many rooftops are metal sheets. Once that storm did slightly roll off, I had the camera on a gimbal for stabilisation, locking the axis and just filming the life from a fixed perspective.

I was using the Sony A6000 with the Helios 44-2 vintage lens on it through an adapter. With it still raining lightly, I had to find ways to cover the gimbal and camera to ensure there was no water getting onto the gear. Given the floor was absolutely soaked, the only difficulty was really the manual focus given the vintage lens. I used some focus peaking to help as a general guide, though that isn't always that reliable. Sometimes you don't quite realise you're still slightly off with the focus. And that also comes with the fact that the manual vintage lens isn't the sharpest thing in the world to begin with. A solid focus with it can sometimes still look a bit soft. Though there are moments, certain distances between subjects, where it looks beautiful and crisp. And that first image I think really shows it. A beautiful image of a leaf, close up with the droplets above. Some oval bokeh visible in the highlights.

It's the highlights that I love with the Helios 44-2, the shallow depth of field look where the oval bokeh is produced. I really wanted to pursue that with these images, to get a nice separation of the garden all damp and natural with the bokeh produced from the water in the highlights. With some natural light from the overcast sky above to guide it. This second image from the garden, showing some of the farming that takes place in this region, where gardens aren't entirely for beauty, but more the fruits and greens that they produce that can help feed the family: apricot trees, basil, dill, and even pomegranates. Though it's a little too early in the season to actually see those growing still. I had a lot of fun pointing the lens downward anyway, looking at the muddy leftovers of the rain. The large puddles and the little flowers and greens that were opening up, soaking in all the nutrients and showing some life. Even some roses of which I remember blooming beautifully last year as well.

It was a lot of fun shooting things during and after the rain. Part of me wanting that storm to continue to get more of that aesthetic. Though it wasn't a particularly long storm for once. A quick downpour before disappearing. Perhaps I'll also do something with some of the clips I shot, though I'm not entirely sure I have enough of them to create anything all that interesting. It was more a test with the Helios to shoot something more still and up close, to see how it'd function alongside some natural setting with that shallow depth of field. I do somewhat want to get another Helios lens but maybe with another focal length. And I also intend to start shooting some portraits with it here in Armenia as summer starts to pick up and that scorching sun returns.

To end the post, here's a tiny flowering plant that survived the rain, surrounded by a puddle on a little island that had formed. You can see that dreamy bokeh still in the background, how it swirls around the subject. Pretty cool, right?