Rain: Brainstorm

The brief calls for a single, strong, attractive photograph that leaves no doubt that the subject is Rain. The image is to be used for the cover of a fictional magazine. My first thought is that I need to be careful that I don't include objects in the frame that could confuse the viewer into thinking that they are in fact the subject, not the rain.

Brainstorming the Effects of Rain

Splashing.
Droplets on glass, cars etc.
Puddles.
Reflections.
Wet weather clothing.
Umbrellas.
Streets turned to rivers.
Water flowing into street drain.
Soaking wet hair.
Black clouds.
Dripping.
Colourful city reflection on wet pavement/road.
Person with umbrella reflected in wet surface of car.
A soaking wet umbrella leaning up a wall.
Dog shaking water off his coat.

I've also had a browse on images tagged with 'rain' on Flickr. The most common technique by far for depicting rain is shooting water droplets on windows. This certainly serves the purpose, but is certainly cliche and not imaginative enough for this exercise. Some ideas that caught my eye though were:

Street scenes in torrential rain (lots of people with umbrellas).
A closeup of a dripping wet piece of street furniture (close enough that it is clear the rain is the subject).
A glistening street scene with the city lights reflected on the wet path.
Closeup of rain droplets hitting puddles.

Evidently then, there are lots of options when it comes to depicting rain in an image. My initial reaction is to pick a scene that I can create at will, in other words one which doesn't need a rainy day. I like the idea of a park bench or similar, which I can drench with a bottle of water, then take a closeup of the droplets that form. This is something I can do without waiting for a rainy day. The other idea I like, which I can also manufacture, is a closeup images of water droplets hitting a puddle.