Although not the normal silky streams against a pitch black sky, this image has a story.

It's been raining here since Thursday night. However, on Saturday we still decided to go to where I had captured this image http://www.pbase.com/britestar/image/114621289 last year. Normally, we spend the entire day there with a picnic lunch, stroll the gardens, listen to a live orchestra, and finally enjoy a gorgeous fireworks display. So we still made the 100 mile drive with hopes that we'd miss the "spotty" storms. However, it soon started to drizzle, & the drizzle quickly turned into a deluge. So we were forced to have our picnic lunch in our car in the parking lot. However, as soon as that rain storm passed, we gathered our stuff together and ventured down to the scenic meadow to set up for the music and fireworks display. Drizzly again. Hum??? Not good. But we were there & still hopeful. So I ventured off to photograph some of the flowers. Unfortunately, the skies were so dark and dismal that there wasn't enough light to even illuminate the water droplets on the plants. The rain also got worse again. That's when there was the announcement that the fireworks display was being called off. So after 4 hours, we gave up and went home. Totally soaked to the skin, my husband remarked sitting out in the rain for hours was the dumbest thing he's ever done. Well, I can't say that. I've done far "dumber" things in my lifetime.

The next day, July 4th, the rain was even worse. Because we usually take my mom to a local firework display 20 minutes away, we again we tried. With a break in the rain; we were hopeful that the fireworks might go off. However by fireworks time, the rain was coming down in buckets! There was a flash flood warning. So we had to again give up.

When all leads me to this photo. At almost Midnight, I was downloading a photo card when I surprisingly noticed fireworks out my patio door. There was a lull in the rain; so the Lake Community a couple blocks from us must have decided to go ahead with their fireworks display before the 4th had passed. However as soon as I went to my back door to see what was happening, it started to rain again. Then, it started to absolutely pour. My tripod was out in the car & the fireworks were going off quite rapidly. Therefore, I only had the chance to grab the camera and lens that I had used to photograph flowers the day before. I also had no choice but to hand shoot. It was pouring rain; plus the smoke clouds were blowing our direction.
However, I did get some very "natural" July 4th fireworks shots for 2010. BTW, it's pourig outside again!

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Copyright 2010 Elizabeth Bickel. All rights reserved.