Photo Assignment #8: Weather

Tessa Trivax, a junior majoring in fashion media and journalism at Southern Methodist University, photographs the weather in Los Angeles, California on November 26, 2025. ©2025 Tessa Trivax

For this weather assignment, I wanted to capture something that felt unexpected—a mix of two moods in one frame. I took this photo in Los Angeles during a rainstorm because the scene looked surreal. You can see palm trees, which usually represent sunshine and warmth, blurred behind raindrops on the window. The contrast between the rain and the iconic California landscape felt like a visual contradiction, and that’s what drew me in. It wasn’t just a picture of bad weather, it was a snapshot of how unpredictable and layered the atmosphere can be.

I shot the image from inside a car to let the rain on the glass become part of the composition. The droplets softened the palm trees and added texture, giving the photo a sense of distance and calm. I didn’t want a clean, postcard-style shot of Los Angeles; I wanted to show it in an in-between state, when the weather changes how everything looks. The reflection and blur made the scene feel more personal, almost like seeing the city through memory rather than reality.

I chose this specific moment because it captures both movement and stillness—the rain falling outside while I remained inside, observing. That mix made the photo feel introspective, like the calm you get when you just watch a storm from shelter. The weather became more than a backdrop; it transformed how familiar scenery looked and felt. This shot reminded me that sometimes the best way to photograph weather isn’t by showing the sky, but by showing how the world changes underneath it.