Central Park in the rain

It rained on Sunday and I began a new project photographing nature in New York's Central Park for both a limited edition book and print portfolio. At this time of year the vegetation is lush and full with the light rain saturating the colors. I plan to photograph primarily on overcast days to eliminate the harsh contrast of the sun. I photographed digitally with the Nikon D800, and on black and white film with a Hasselblad 500cm. Below are some of the Nikon photos I took.

I began at Betheda Fountain and did a circuit around part of The Lake and into the natural woodland area of  the Ramble. One side benefit of photographing in the rain is that it kept the crowds away, even on a Sunday.

For the most part I photographed with only one lens, the Nikon 24-120mm zoom because I did not want to be changing lenses too often in the rain. The only other lens I had with me was a Tamron 90mm macro, which I used to take this image of rain drops on pine needles.

I wanted an extreme depth of field for most of the shots so I worked primarily around f/22 using a tripod, of course.

Rain drops falling on the lake.

My Nikon D800 was covered in water by the end of the day.

The falling rain added a soft, Impressionist mist to this panorama with the Bow Bridge.