Rainy Afternoon

It has been raining all day! A different lighting situation to say the least. I haven't made any observations in the early afternoon, either, so I decide to whip out the old camera and concentrate on my umbrella from a dry spot. Although the skies are grey, the light is fairly bright. Everything is bathed in a soft, white glow as the rain falls. I set my umbrella down at my feet, looking at it from the shelter of a covered bench area. While the light in the sky is bright, my subject is in the shade. Let me begin by describing my umbrella, which is of the collapsable/portable variety. The texture of the umbrella fabric is resilient enough sustain itself against water, but not entirely opaque so that light cannot pas through it. It is primarily red, with a colorful paisley and floral pattern of yellows, greens and blues. The handle is a shiny grey cylinder with a pink, inset pushbutton, with a rope-like pink loop for the wrist hanging of the edge. Since I plan to use it within the next 15 minutes, I did not bother to wrap it up, so it lies open. Since it has been raining, the colors seem to pop a little more than usual on the wet fabric, but the soft, intense brightness of the afternoon somewhat washes out the color where light directly hits. The fabric is not shiny by any means, as a subtle texture (which is more for tactile than appearance) captures the light in ways that make it appear more matte. However, the rain has rendered a slight slick quality which bounes some light back as a soft specular. The material blows open a little bit every so often with the rough winds, revealing the slight transparency as light diffuses from the topside of the material through the slightly lighter in hue underside. The overall white light of the afternoon and rain makes for subtle, soft shadows if any. There is certainly no apparent cast shadow, and shadows can really only be found at the folds of the fabric over the bends in metallic structure. Over the 15 minutes little of this changes.

Here is my video (excuse the chatter at the beginning, I was finishing a conversation with my professor as I got myself situated for this). Upon watching my footage, I realize that I did not pay much attention to the metallic wireframe of my object while I was making my observations. In the footage it stands out, but I seemed to be very focused on the umbrella fabric. Next time I will be more careful to take note of the whole picture.

Rainy Afternoon from Lady Subrosa on Vimeo.