Behind the Shot: Between the Raindrops

There are some things you can plan for on a photography tour. Sunrise times, tides and locations all make their way onto the itinerary. The weather usually has other ideas.

Fortunately, Newfoundland was in a good mood when our tour began.

Blue skies greeted us on our first day as we spent time photographing puffins in flight, twisting and turning over the cliffs in ways that make them both endlessly entertaining and endlessly frustrating to photograph. Between the puffins, we spent time with a growing family of cormorants perched high above the water and even found time for some of Newfoundland's smaller residents along the trail.

We finished the day wandering the Bonavista boardwalk during blue hour. There's something about this place when the harbour lights begin to glow and the pace of the day slows that makes it one of my favourite places to end an evening with a camera.

Then the weather changed.

Not enough to send us back to the vehicle, but just enough to keep us paying attention. We'd wait for a shower to pass, make our photographs and move on before the skies changed their mind once again.

It's funny what a little rain will do to a landscape. The greens become deeper, the wildflowers more vibrant, and weathered wood seems to take on a little more character. Places that might otherwise go unnoticed suddenly ask you to slow down and take a second look.

Some of my favourite photographs from the tour came between those passing showers. An old gas pump standing watch over a forgotten outport. Lupines glowing against a grey sky. The Dungeon wearing a mood entirely different than the one most visitors hope for. Abandoned homes slowly returning to the landscape that has surrounded them for generations.

The photographs we come home talking about are rarely the ones we expect to make. Sometimes they're waiting for us in the places we almost drove past or in the weather forecast we were hoping wouldn't arrive.

Three days, a little sunshine, a few raindrops and no shortage of stories shared along the way. I'd call that a pretty good trip.