Most people believe that for an ideal photo shoot, a clear day and nice bright light is a definite requirement. When the weather gets crazy people very easily lose their photography interest. Of all weather conditions, rain provides some of the best conditions for exploring your creative side of photography! Read on to learn how to make use of rainy weather to take great photos.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Rain brings out a completely different set of behaviour patterns in people. Therefore, photographing people in the rain makes for an excellent and interesting photo opportunity. Some hate it when it rains and other go crazy, so you've got a very lively bunch of subjects to shoot. Watching people through a camera in rain can bring out some of most interesting portraits that you've ever made!
Try this: Classify people based on their age and then capture them with your camera. Kids, teenagers, grown-ups and old people all have a very different way of reacting when it rains. A portrait taken at this moment lets you bring out the essence of the person.
Rain brings out some interesting patterns which are an important aspect of photography. Patterns can make your composition almost irresistible. If you look around carefully enough you'll notice several patterns that come up during rain and serve as wonderful objects for abstract and architectural photography.
As the picture on the right shows, even a simple spider web with water droplets can make up a very interesting composition. Another great rainy day photo is rain droplets acting as mirrors producing a plethora of reflections. This kind of an image is difficult to come across, but if your look for it you'll definitely find it. Try shooting with a shallow depth of field so that the water droplets and their reflections are in perfect focus, remember that you're trying depict pictures inside a picture!
Once you get the hang of it, you'll start churning out photos like this, with great compositional value, frequently. Its like swimming, its difficult when you learn it, but once you've trained yourself the eyes never miss the scenes.
Another interesting aspect of shooting under rainy conditions are reflections! Rain water serves as light reflectors, depending on how you compose your shot. I recommend starting with trying to take photos of reflections in the water, once you get a hold of this you can move onto to more advanced tricks. Reflections add a sense of awe, as well as an abstract feeling, to your photographs. So, remember to scan each and every puddle that you come across for that great view that you would never come across on a bright and dry sunny day. 
Continue on to page two to learn more tips and ideas on taking the best photos in the rain!