One of the biggest challenges in photographing bonsai is the light. Any hint of sun in the sky would mean very dark shadows and bright highlights far beyond what a camera can capture. So it was often a waiting game, especially on those slightly cloudy days. I'd compose my image and just watch the sky, waiting for a cloud to pass over the sun and give me beautiful, diffuse light. Often, I would only have time to make one or two photos before the clouds would pass and I'd be left deciding whether to refine that shot or to move on to another one.
On this day, it never stopped raining and the light had a beautiful, silvery quality to it that imbued the bonsai with even more of a sense of drama and grace.