FUJIFILM X-M1 (16mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO400)

Rain! There is nothing special about rain and I had my fair share of rain during various vacations in Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Scandinavia and Canada. I even managed to get some rain in Portugal, Spain or Croatia but I never had some real rain during my vacations in the US. This was the first time!

I was in the USA in 2010, in 2013 and in 2014. In total 9 weeks of vacation. This day in the  Rockies was the first and only rainy day so far. I guess to visit the South West helps. There is a reason why it is mostly deserts.

There is a serious draught in most parts of the South West and especially in California since almost 5 years now. This is of course horrible for the local people, for the farms and for every single private household. If you are on vacation it is different. I always had discussions with friends in the past why I spend most of my vacation in wet and cold places. It’s not that I love cold and wet weather. It’s not always cold and wet in Scotland. It can be very nice too. Like everybody else I don’t like rain or fog when on vacation. I want to be outdoors and bad weather compromises the experience. It is also harder to take nice landscape images if the landscape is not visible.

I always accepted the rain when I was in Ireland or Scotland because it keeps the landscape fresh and clean. Nothing compares to sunshine after rain or a rainbow or a sunlit landscape in front of a thunderstorm sky. It’s magic!

FUJIFILM X-T1 (30.2mm, f/3.6, 1/220 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-T1 (18mm, f/4, 1/40 sec, ISO200)

But I have to admit that I got used to vacations where the days are filled with warm sunlight. All day, every day. In Austria the winters can be tough. I’m not talking about the temperatures I’m talking about the lack of sunlight. Sometimes in November and December there is not one single day of sunshine! Unless you don’t drive up the mountains there is a high chance that you don’t see the sun for weeks. Days are short, dark and grey. Summers can be cold and wet too. So if you have poor weather during your main vacation you loose the chance to load up your vitamin D level.

This is what happened in 2011 when our three weeks in British Columbia were mostly cold and wet. Maybe that’s why we since than keep on going to spend our most precious three weeks of the year in the South West of the US. To be on the save side.

But it is not just that. It’s the fantastic landscape, the friendly people, the uncomplicated way of traveling, the space! The solitude in the desert. All that and more. I guess we got hooked.

FUJIFILM X-T1 (22.3mm, f/4, 1/40 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-T1 (18mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO1000)

If guess if you have sun all day every day a couple of rainy days are something really special. I would send some of the rain we got here to California if I could. They could use it. There are already plans to built a pipeline to transport water from the Canadian border to California to fight the drought.

As it was just one day we enjoyed the rain on our way to Albuquerque.

FUJIFILM X-T1 (18mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO200)