I am 77 years old and a friend sold me his camera 10 years ago. I have grown to love photographing birds. I am a novice. I treasure all the moments of quiet interaction with my camera and the birds I am lucky enough to photograph. As a younger woman there was no time for a hobby. Raising a child with my husband and working outside the home took up my free time. Most of the photographers I run into when I am out birding are men but I am seeing more and more younger women out birding with a camera and no binoculars. I love talking to these young women and listening to their passion for photography.

On a recent trip the weather was less than ideal - cloudy, misty, rainy and occasionally stormy. However I was determined to make the most of it (I don't get out much ). I was on the west coast of Scotland, which is known for its mountains, and while mountains can look good when shrouded in cloud and mist, I already had a sizeable collection of misty, cloudy mountain shots and I wasn't looking for more.

I found myself gravitating towards river and stream shots because they're a good option even if the weather's not great. Apart from being a realistic option in flat light, if it's raining or has been raining, the rivers and streams will have a good amount of flow, which makes it easier to find photogenic and possibly dramatic stuff. The same can be said for waterfalls, but that's not what I was looking for at the time.

In the process of hunting down and finding shootable stretches of rivers and streams I came to the realisation that mountains still made very desirable additions to river shots. Not only that, but with a strong foreground (e.g. a photogenic river) the mountain doesn't have to be perfect or in perfect light or even clearly visible, because in those circumstances they are delegated to the role of background provider. Normally mountains command so much of our attention that they almost automatically become the main subject of a landscape shot, and when that's the case you want them looking at their best. However, if your foreground river (the main subject) looks the part, that's the most important criterion fulfilled and a less-than-perfect mountain becomes very acceptable.

The first three of the following shots are examples of what I just described. The last shot, which was taken on a very misty day, shows that river shots can sometimes provide their own background. And one of the things that rivers and streams have in common with mountains is that they can look just fine with a bit of mist and subdued lighting.

If you have any other bad weather suggestions, feel free to share them - and any examples that you may have - on this thread.
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