When life gives you rain, you can either hide and wait for it stop, or you can dance among the raindrops.

It is no secret for those who know me, that I love rain. Just as well, because I live in the country where it rains a lot. That's what makes it so beautiful. Colourful and lush. So when the rain comes pouring down, my camera comes out. I love taking photographs in the rain, especially when I am in a city.

Much to my delight, shortly after I published my From London With Love book, I was contacted by the Digital Camera Magazine. They chose one of the rainy photos from the book for their regular feature "Five-minute Masterclass". Here is an excerpt from the article, and the photo. You can read the rest in this month issue of the magazine. Only a small column, but it made my day...

Many of your London images were taken during or after rain. What are the advantages of shooting at those times?

England is infamous for its fickle and wet weather. Once it starts raining you can either pack up your equipment, go home and have a cup of tea, or you can embrace the conditions and take advantage of them. I will always recommend to withstand the bad conditions, and you will be rewarded by endless opportunities for creating unique images. Reflections, colours, abstracts, stormy light. Streets come alive with colourful umbrellas, pavements fill up with reflective puddles, windows and glass panes are covered with raindrops, and colours are much brighter and more intense. The light just before or after the rain can very often be spectacular. I find myself looking forward to the rainy days so that I can look for more subjects to photograph. Unless it is raining really heavily and the horizontal rain is blowing straight onto the lens. Then the cup of tea, and perhaps a slice of cake might be a better idea.

If you would like to see more of my rainy photographs, please see my gallery When It Rains. It is far from finished. I will continue updating it whenever I happen to be in the middle of a downpour...