It was pouring down rain this morning and early afternoon. Huge drops hurled themselves onto the sunroof of my new PLA*, a white 1986 Sedan Deville to replace the white 1986 Sedan Deville that one of my descendants smashed up not so very long ago. I was out and about running errands, but Forest Park was never far from my mind. I was picturing splashing through the rain, getting my shoes and pant legs soaked while juggling my cameras and trying to keep the wind from snatching my umbrella away, and then, when all was said and done, having to wipe my cameras dry.

But the sun came out. It did not dry up all the rain, but it came out and shone on the polished streets, it glittered through the freshly washed air, it reflected off the glistening bike paths in the park and as it was throwing photons every which way, it cast some onto my silicon chips.

I could see the Arch (the part that isn’t obscured by the tremendously ugly Federal Building downtown) from my vantage point at the southwest corner of America’s premier urban park, and it gleamed brightly back at me. Then the sun went back behind the clouds and it got dark again. My exposures went from 1/2000 sec at f5.6 to 1/30 sec at f5.6 - a decrease of over 95%. That’s dark. Photographers like to go toward the light - it’s just the way we are. I did manage to save a few photons, though (I was thinking of you), and you can see the results here.

*Powerful Luxury Automobile