Normally I get a little bummed when I get up early for photo shoot to find it raining. But on our second day in Guanajuato I was perfectly happy with the light drizzle. Night cityscape photography is just about the only time I like to shoot in the rain. The mix of colorfully painted buildings and well lit callejones (alleys) in Guanajuato make night photography here particularly beautiful anyway. But one thing that can enhance that beauty is if the cobbles are wet, causing them to shimmer, reflecting the color and light.
It wasn’t raining hard, but I still got thoroughly soaked as I wandered around the streets in the dark. Keeping the camera lens dry was also a challenge, especially for the 20-30 second exposures that were required while using a circular polarizer and an aperture of f/16 in low light. In the northwest US, rain is common enough that there are usually awnings or covered entries to hide under when shooting cityscapes in the rain. Not only are awnings rare in this arid part of the world, but most buildings don’t even have any sort of eaves to hide under. I was only able to take a few images before my gear and I were wet enough to call it a morning. Still, I’m excited about the images I did get and hope to have another chance to photograph in the rain while I’m here. On the other hand, I might give up that chance if it meant I could get some warm, sunny weather. I’m layered up and freezing at the moment since the houses don’t have insulation, double pane windows or weather stripping.
