Summer 2021 is not over yet

Switzerland's weather in June and July so far has been an interesting mix of beautiful summer days with high temperatures, followed by sudden temperature drops, heavy thunder- and fearsome hailstorms and torrential downpours - again followed by beautiful summer days - continuous ups and downs!

I decided to try to tell the story of the ever changing weather - with one image only.

One image only visual storytelling

The image shows our kids pool. It is full of water. The pool is covered by a protective cover. The protective cover itself again is flooded with rain - so there are two layers of water. This is my favourite image, my 1st attempt.

One image only?

Maybe you missed the protective cover? Without the protective cover it's just a normal pool, filled with water, isn't it? Nothing special. In fact there are two layers of water: One under the protective cover - let's call it «pool water» representing the beautiful summer days, and one on the protective cover - let's call it «rain» representing the rainy days.

Of course, I made a bunch of images for this small «one image only visual storytelling» challenge.

Here is another image showing the protective cover. On the left there is a huge swimming belt on the water, under the protective cover. Probably this is the better image, my 2nd attempt.

Lessons learned and conclusion

What are my learnings from this small «one image only visual storytelling» challenge?

Let's be honest: Two - instead of one! - images were necessary to tell the story. Perhaps the second image would have been the better choice?

I mistakenly chose the first image as my main image, because it looks so much better in my eyes, but it does not tell all of the story. Where is the protective cover, flooded with rain?

It is not necessarily the most attractive images that are best suited for storytelling.

Trying to find the relevant elements for your story and including them all into one single image can be quite difficult!

The most relevant elements in my example are, in my opinion:
a) the beautiful and colorful reflections of the sky, the magenta roses and the clouds;
b) the protective cover must be visible;
c) there must be water on the protective cover in order to show the rain.

Just focus on these elements - they tell the full story. The rest is irrelevant.

It is a lot of fun to focus on less in order to get more.