Flickr a Day 13: Lucky Shot

The unluckiest number is good designation for a photographer caught in the rain—making his own luck. My feature photo on the thirteenth day comes from Flickr newcomer Iliyan Yankov, who joined just 12 months ago. He also posts to Facebook.

He describes himself as a “student in Italy studying arts. One of my passion is the photography. I love to travel around the world and capture it. If I have some free time I love to go out on the street with my camera and spend hours there capturing the atmosphere”. Ha! When i previewed Iliyan’s self-titled “Raining London at Night”, my wife remarked: “It has a lot of atmosphere!” He describes his photographic style well. 

liyan’s story behind the photo, taken Nov. 8, 2014, and why I say it’s making luck:

I decided to go out yesterday and take a walk at central London but when I arrived there the rain suddenly came (typical situation for UK) 😀 So my walk end to the close bus stop where I catch the wrong bus 😀 Anyway I was able to took this photo to remind me that I must have always umbrella with me 😀

He could have given up, as the Nikon D70 isn’t weatherproofed. It’s better to capture the moment than nothing, which turns out to be quite something. Photo vitals are incomplete, as the metadata records no data about the lens. Shutter speed (1/80) and ISO (500) are it.

I used the D70 a decade ago, and it is still one of my favorite dSLRs ever. Megapixel madness drives photography to greater numbers, but other attributes matter more. The 5MP D70 produced some of the sharpest photos I have ever taken, even with relatively cheap lenses. Judging from liyan’s 300-plus photos, he gets good value from his classic Nikon.

Photo Credit: Iliyan Yankov