A Rainy Day at Morikami
Most photographers visit Japanese gardens looking for the obvious photographs.
Perfect bridges.
Koi ponds.
Symmetrical landscapes.
The danger with a place like the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is that it almost invites postcard photography. The compositions are already designed for you.
But that wasn’t the goal of this shoot.
Instead, I gave myself a much harder assignment.
The theme was impermanence.
Japanese aesthetics often center around ideas like wabi-sabi — the beauty of things that are imperfect, temporary, and quietly changing. And on this particular day, the weather gave me the perfect conditions to explore that idea: rain, overcast skies, wet stone, and soft light.
Rather than photographing the garden itself, the goal was to photograph how the garden was changing in that moment.
Before getting started, I had to get my 酒 (sake) and さつまいもコロッケ (Japanese croquette made with sweet potatoes) to help jump start creativity.
The Assignment
I gave myself 2 hours to produce a five-photo visual story about impermanence using 1 lens, 1 film recipe and SOOC image, no retouching. More on that below.
Each image had a specific role in the story.
This wasn’t about collecting pretty images. It was about documenting small moments that most visitors and most photographers would probably walk past.
What I Was Trying to Avoid
Before starting, I set one rule for myself:
No postcard photographs.
That meant avoiding the typical wide landscape shots and instead focusing on smaller, quieter moments.
Things like:
movement caused by rain
imperfections in natural materials
patterns created by water
subtle traces of human presence
The goal was to photograph the spirit of the place, not the obvious scenery.
The Five-Photo Story
The assignment was structured as a visual narrative made of five images.
Each photo had a different purpose.
1. The Breath of the Garden
The first image needed to capture movement.
Rain and wind are constantly changing the landscape, even in small ways. Ripples in water, leaves trembling, bamboo bending slightly in the wind — these small movements reveal that the garden is alive.
The challenge here was photographing motion without letting the image feel chaotic.
2. Imperfect Beauty
The second photograph focused on imperfection.
Japanese gardens embrace the idea that age and wear add character. Moss growing on stone, weathered wood, uneven textures, or a fallen leaf on wet gravel can reveal more about a place than a perfectly arranged scene.
The challenge was to frame these imperfections with intention and respect.
3. Rain as Ink
Rain changes the visual language of a landscape.
Droplets hitting water, reflections breaking apart, streaks running down stone surfaces — all of these patterns begin to resemble brushstrokes.
This photograph focused on pattern and rhythm, treating rain almost like ink on paper.
4. The Human Trace
For the fourth image, I wanted to photograph evidence of people without showing a person.
Wet footprints.
A bench covered in raindrops.
Gravel that had been disturbed by footsteps.
These details hint at the presence of visitors without making them the subject of the image.
Sometimes absence can tell a stronger story than presence.
5. The Moment Before Silence
The final photograph needed to feel quiet.
After movement and detail, the story ends with stillness.
This could be a calm reflection on water, a lantern sitting in soft grey light, or a tree standing quietly in the mist. The image needed to feel simple and contemplative.
A visual pause.
The Rules That Made It Hard
To keep the assignment challenging, I added several constraints:
No wide scenic landscape shots
Every image had to include water or evidence of rain
No more than three major elements in the frame
Focus primarily on mid-range focal lengths instead of ultra-wide lenses
Each photograph had to feel visually distinct
These kinds of constraints force you to slow down and observe more carefully.
Why I Like Assignments Like This
Photographers often talk about finding inspiration, but inspiration rarely shows up on its own.
Assignments create it.
When you limit your time, define a theme, and impose creative rules, you start noticing things you would normally ignore.
A raindrop on bamboo.
A reflection breaking in water.
A fallen leaf resting on wet stone.
These moments are easy to overlook, but they often contain the most interesting stories.
What I Learned
The biggest lesson from this assignment was simple:
Rain doesn’t ruin a photo walk. It transforms it.
Overcast skies soften light, rain creates texture, and quiet weather slows everything down — including the photographer.
Instead of chasing dramatic light, the challenge becomes seeing subtle details.
And sometimes those subtle moments say far more about a place than the obvious photographs ever could.
Gear
Fujifilm X-Pro 3
Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4
Recipe