A rainy day in York

I have to admit, I was excited about the prospect of taking some photographs in bad weather. For several months, the weather in the UK has been good and, on the occasion we have had poor weather, work or family life has forced me to miss it. So, knowing that the forecast was thunder and lightning, I boarded the early train to York with a glee of anticipation and exception in my eye. Unfortunately, I had to use my autofocus Nikon 35mm prime lens rather than my trustee manual focus Voigtlander or Thypock lens, which were not weather sealed. I soon learned that this was going to cause a problem. After using manual focus for so many months, which had now become second nature, my response to autofocus had become much slower. When using the camera low to the ground to capture the ‘Rat View’ as one famous photographer told me, many of my shots resulted in being out of focus. This would not have happened on my manual focus lenses and I soon discovered that the autofocus appeared to be struggling in the rain when used near the ground. All my fault of cause, I had forgot how to adapt to the lens - it was so long since I had used it.

The day was very successful with several very good shots resulting from a ‘ginnel’ (Yorkshire slang) or an ‘alley way’ to other parts of the UK. Above is one of the many shots taken from the ‘ginnel’ during torrential rain.