Mud and wind at Discovery Park

...Well, it wasn't all muddy and windy. The winds were actually fairly still when I arrived at Discovery Park this morning, at about 7am. But the winds kicked up by midmorning, such that there were areas in the park where I couldn't even depend on my tripod (which is pretty heavy and sturdy as tripods go) because the wind was wobbling it so. At that point, Fate was entirely responsible for any good pictures I took.

Some of the plants were still wet from yesterday's rain, such as this red-flowering currant. Even with the winds pretty still, it was still quite difficult to get any sharp pictures of this plant, because even the slightest breeze (sometimes too light to feel) can move the plant, and without sunlight the slower shutter speeds compound this problem. And the closer you get, the stiller the plant has to be to look sharp in the picture. But breezes seem to "pulsate," so to speak, so with patience I was able to take pictures like this during breaks in the breeze.

It even got gusty in wooded areas at times, as evidenced by the shrubs' motion blur in this one:

I think that's about it for the cool ones from this morning. The meteorologists are telling me that it's going to stop raining for a little while later this week. If this comes true, there will be more pictures. Even if not, I might risk going out if showers are forecast. I've done it before, and while it's kind of annoying to have to pack up the camera every hour or to and stand there in the forest getting soaked, it's not an insurmountable difficulty. Besides, I have mud boots now! And the rain keeps the parks nice and empty for me...=).