Street Photos in the Rain (Send Help)
Into the Storm
John’s framing up a shot outside one of Manchester’s sexy new restaurants (no more clues — this is my spot). I look down at my trainers, soaked through. Only the two pairs of socks I’m wearing are saving me — for now — from trench foot.
We’re out on another nighttime photowalk. With a twist: it’s fucking pouring.
I keep muttering that this wasn’t in the forecast. John stays quiet. I can’t shake the feeling he did some kind of rain dance before we met. I wouldn’t put it past him — something he picked up in some far flung destination, I imagine.
John, a talented and motivated street photographer, loves shooting in this weather and is drawn to the rain like a moth to a flame (check out his blog). I am too — just maybe not all the time. Or right now. My umbrella’s blown inside out twice already. Staying dry is a fool's errand; there's no escape from the rising tide.
Getting Back in the Habit
I used to shoot in the rain all the time — in my previous life as a street photographer.
I call it that because I took a break. An unintended one. Two years away from street photography. I never planned to stop, and to this day, I’m not really sure why I did. Maybe I burned out — those first couple of years were intense. Shooting obsessively: after work, lunch breaks, crack of dawn, dead of night. Whenever. Wherever.
It had become an obsession. I was ambitious, hooked on Instagram, and just loving the feeling of improving — and being fairly decent (for a beginner anyway) at something. Even after pushing hard through the pandemic, I don’t know what happened — one day I just put the camera down and didn’t pick it up again for nearly two years. Why? Still not sure. Maybe I’ll get into that another time.
But before that break, I used to shoot with Maria (Page) — another soul drawn to the rain. It made the weather feel normal, almost welcome. Some days, I’d check the forecast not to avoid the rain, but to find it, then jump on the tram for the half-hour ride into town, ready to battle the elements for a good shot.
Enduring the Elements
So by now, you might be asking the same question I started this article with: why the fuck are you out here? Well, there’s good reason — let me try to sell you on it.
Shooting in the rain is a brutally masochistic act. It’s demanding — mentally, technically. Throw in the darkness, like I was dealing with on this particular shoot, and you’ve got a recipe for great photos — if you’re good enough and can stomach the conditions.
Picture coloured umbrellas, raindrops on windows, umbrellas turned inside out, people jumping over puddles, running to escape the rain. It’s chaos—and I love it!
Here are a few examples from recent rainy walks:
Small City, Big Challenges
Shooting in a smaller city (more on that in another article), we don’t always have the characters, the architecture, the good light, or that elusive X factor a big city boasts.
We don’t like to complain too much up here — we’re not Southern Jessies — and what’s the alternative? Waiting for holidays to shoot? Becoming travel street photographers who jet off to India for “White Man Street Photography”?
No thanks.
This is why, when you’re shooting in a smaller city, you need guile — you have to work a little harder to compete with our big-city photographer brothers and sisters. The rain is a great leveller; it can elevate the mundane through chaos, colour, and atmosphere. It shakes everything up, and we — as street photographers, the ultimate observers of human behaviour — are there to capture what the rain does to people.
Rain strips things back. You stop overthinking. You stop trying to control everything. And in that chaos, something raw comes through. And sometimes, something magic.
And in Manchester, it rains a lot! I’ve got used to it, despite my gallows humour about the whole thing.
Getting Equipped: Staying Comfortable in the Wet
There are ways to make shooting in the rain more comfortable — a decent raincoat, good shoes (I picked up some Gore-Tex running trainers for next winter), and trousers that don’t soak up water.
A weather-sealed camera helps, but it’s not essential. You can protect your gear with a proper camera cover — or even DIY one with a plastic bag and a cut-out. And don’t underestimate the ultimate street photography companion: an umbrella. I can shoot for hours one-handed with perfect technique — something I like to brag about at dinner parties, alongside other topics that swiftly alienate me. Fun times.
Embrace the Chaos: Your Next Shoot in the Rain
With all these little tweaks to your usual routine, I hope shooting in the rain is something you might embrace instead of giving the cold shoulder. So next time it pours, don’t put the camera away. Grab a brolly, embrace the chaos — and see what the rain gives you.
Special thanks to John for the idea for this blog. I’d been struggling to find a topic and thought I might have a touch of writer’s block. As an experienced blogger himself, he’s been a big help and a great motivator.
