The West Coast is often affectionately called the wet coast,well, because it’s wet.

For example, according to the news tonight, Hope, just 100 miles to the east of Vancouver, gets an average of about 100 mm of rain in January. Over the last 24 hours, they’ve already had that 100mm of rain, and it is still raining.

Apparently Port Alberni, to the west of us, has had over 200 mm of rain, and that number is still climbing. The City of Surrey had close to 70mm, well above our usual.

Ok, so this is an unusual year. Still, we do get a lot of rain around here, and that can have an effect on the kind of photography we can do. Especially when we’re constrained to weekend shooting.

Looking through Flickr, I see tons of great pictures.  Bright, sunny, colourful pictures. I get jealous. Winter on the wet coast means sunless days, grey clouds, browns, and faded yellows. We have a lot of evergreens, so there are some dull greens too.

Much of the winter is grey and rainy. A sunny day is a glorious respite, and the activity of the city reflects that. I’m sure the number of pictures around Vancouver rises exponentially when the sun comes out.

But what does a budding photographer do when it rains.  If you can’t include great light and colour, what else sets photographs apart. What compositional tricks or other techniques can compensate for a dull, grey, wet day?

That’s what I’m going to explore this winter. I’m working on a short list of options to try, but your suggestions are welcome.

There must be lots of ways to take great photos in the rain. Whadayathink?