PHOTO: 'Naturally, in Salem' features outdoor scenes from around the area

With April showers, Salem gardens are starting to put on their finest. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)

When April showers come your way, don’t retreat to the living room and curl up with a good book. Reach for your camera, (or phone), and head out into the garden.

While it may be counter intuitive, cloudy, showery April days provide an ideal light for garden photography and often, provide better results than garden photographs taken on bright, sunny days.

Clouds and light showers diffuse the light provided by the sun, softening harsh shadows that “hide” or obscure fine detail so critical to successful garden photography.

Additionally, rain showers provide an additional design element: droplets of water that cling to blossoms, flowers, and leaves, and give a cheery, shiny, “punch” to everything around you.

Digital cameras and phone cameras are not so delicate that they can’t be used in a light rain, and, the results will brighten up any cloudy day.

The photos in this series were taken at a West Salem residence and at Deepwood Garden.

(Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)

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Ron Cooper

Photographer Ron Cooper and his wife Penny moved to Salem in 1969 to take a job as photographer at the Oregon Statesman (later the Statesman Journal). Their three children, Monica, Kimberly, and Christopher, attended and graduated from Salem public schools. Cooper retired from the Statesman Journal in 2001 but, has continued his passion for photography in many ways, including as a photographer for the Salem Reporter.