Tiny spiky pink flower covered in raindrops

This is a weed growing amongst the plants in my flower beds - I've no idea what it is. I'll be pulling it out with the dandelions etc when it finally stops raining, but in the mean time it looks brilliant covered in tiny raindrops!

I've posted 2 versions of the photo here for you to decide which you like best - the only difference is the depth of field.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200; 1/10s at f/16 / 1/80s at f/6.3; 90mm; tripod & cable release.

Raindrop on a Sedum leaf

I took this one today in my garden. It had been raining all morning and the Sedum plant is great at catching and holding onto raindrops.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8, 1/100s, 35mm, hand held.

Red peony bud covered in raindrops

I took this photo in my garden just after a heavy rain shower about a week ago. There were also lots of flowers in full bloom which, due to their size, ended up weighed down to the ground by raindrops. I cut all the flowers and put them in vases inside, just leaving the new buds behind.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/11, 1/80s, 90mm, hand held.

Mating craneflies

My son spotted these 2 flies on these blades of grass at Hardcastle Crags today - he was initially drawn to the raindrops on the grass. We didn't realise at the time that they were actually mating!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8, 1/60s, -1 step exp bias (keep forgetting to turn it off!), hand held.

Spider beneath a dew-covered web.

Another one from around this time last year. This was a lucky find high up in the woods at Hardcastle Crags. I had my tripod and macro lens with me so set about taking photos of the lovely dew droplets on the web. It wasn't until I reviewed the pictures at home that I realised the spider was there. It's well camouflaged amongst the greens and browns of the foliage, so I desaturated the rest of the image to make it easier to spot.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1/2s, 90mm, tripod & cable release.

Raindrops on a fallen oak leaf.

Here's another macro shot from last week's walk round Hardcastle Crags.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/100s, 90mm, hand held.

Little feather covered in raindrops.

I spotted this feather on the path at Hardcastle Crags today. I'd gone up there this morning in drizzle and low cloud, hoping for some misty tree shots, but by the time I got out of the car, the mist had lifted. On the plus side, I got lots of macro shots of things covered in raindrops!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 400, f/7.1, 1/100s, 90mm, hand held.

Foliage viewed through dewdrops on a spider web.

I took this during a walk through the woods at Hardcastle Crags in November last year. It's a crop from a bigger image - I really like how abstract it is (and being slightly out of focus seems to help!).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1s, 90mm, tripod & cable release.

Geese feeding beside Trentham Lake in heavy rain.

It had just started raining hard when I took this photo in April this year - it was bouncing off the lake and giving it a shimmery effect. Whilst everyone else was running for cover, the geese didn't even seem to notice and just carried on munching away on whatever they had found in the grass.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100. f/4, 1/80s, 35mm, hand held.

Dew droplets on a spider's web spun in long grass

This was a totally unexpected find in early November at Hardcastle Crags this year. It was a foggy morning and the trees were in full autumn colour so I took my tripod hoping to get some atmospheric woodland shots. Whilst walking through the trees I noticed lots of these webs in the tall grass, all glistening with the dew drops that had settled on them from the fog. Luckily, I'd also packed my macro lens, so I set up the tripod and got a few shots from different angles.

I converted to black and white to take away the distracting bright greens of the grass.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/22, 1.6s, 90mm, tripod.

Sunlit raindrops on a blade of grass

I took this one in April last year on the lawn in our garden (a last opportunity before we replaced it with artificial grass). I really like how each little raindrop has its own shadow. I also love the little part-open daisy - another thing I miss about having a real lawn (although I don't miss the mud, bare patches and mowing!!).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4, 1/500s, 90mm, hand held.

Raindrops on the washing line

These two images are taken from the same series of photos as my post on 2nd Jan. I created each of them by cropping in as far as possible to the original images, which contained a long stretch of the line, similar to the 2nd Jan photo. It's a miracle they're as sharp as they are, considering how far away I was and that I wasn't using a tripod!

I really like the effects of the shallow depth of field and sun glinting in the water - it's inspiring me to do some better macro work with raindrops.

I made adjustments to exposure and contrast and added a slight dark vignette in Lightroom, after cropping.

Raindrops sparkling on a washing line

This is the washing line in my garden, photographed when the sun came out straight after a downpour in Spring this year. I think I was in the middle of making tea in the kitchen at the time - when I looked out of the window and saw everything sparkling I had to grab my camera and capture some of it!

In Lightroom I made small adjustments to exposure and contrast and added a slight dark vignette, then converted to black and white.

Sun-lit raindrops on a blade of grass

I took this one on my lawn in April this year. It had been raining hard, then the sun came out and the raindrops were sparkling.

I cropped this from a bigger image to get a better view of the drops I'd focused on. No other post-production changes made.