Photography in Bad Weather – Tips and Techniques

Let’s face it, the weather in most elements of the world isn’t always constantly photo ideal. Where I live on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada we’ve our proportion of rain and what I like to call heavy mist. As a photographer what will we do to put together ourselves for this?

On a recent trip to Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the climate changed into a normal heavy mist with occasional rain jumbled together. Rather than setting the digicam away and forgetting photography completely I took this opportunity to seize what in many ways is a completely unique landscape. All landscapes do not appear like a Tahiti beach at sundown!

Keeping the digital camera tools dry at the same time as shooting is of path one of the primary worries. While I do not cross overboard in shopping for raincoats for my equipment I additionally don’t go away it sitting out on a tripod either. I try to exchange lenses beneath cowl of timber or cliffs or whilst there may be a mild wreck within the drizzle. Often I’ll put on a disheveled raincoat that I can slide the digital camera beneath once I’m now not shooting snapshots and I will drape plastic luggage over the digital camera if wanted. What I do not do is seal my digital camera equipment in plastic or anything else that cannot breathe as I suppose this can just cause extra problems with moisture. A little air stream is a great component! I try to have a mild towel or in a pinch my tee shirt to wipe off the digicam if a touch too much moisture lands on it.

I’m a robust advocate of the use of your lens coloration always and no longer just to color the lens from sunlight and glare. These sunglasses are also very effective at maintaining rain off the front detail of your lens or clear out. It’s first-rate how some drops for your front detail could make ugly blurred regions on your photographs. If I do get drops or mist on the detail I huge it off with a dry fabric or tissue and await it to clean. You must be affected person right here as it is able to take some time! Lens shades also can save your lens if you are transferring fast and deliver the front of the camera smack in opposition to a tree or rocks and this does take place, as a minimum to me!

I really do not worry too much about my digital camera bag getting a bit damp but attempt to preserve it closed as a lot as possible. On event, I even have slipped a rubbish bag over my camera bag if the weather receives extremely unpleasant and while this works well for the worst of it, it additionally makes get admission to a system very tough. The harder it is to get admission to your system and shoot the much less likely you may be shooting photographs; believe me on this!

My biggest difficulty with equipment is getting it dry after I return to the automobile or to my residence. I locate returning to an automobile is the easiest because the temperature inside is ready the same as outdoor so I generally tend now not to get condensation. I wipe my equipment off as well as viable, open up my digicam bag so it may breathe and don’t think an excessive amount of approximately it. As the car warms up the air temperature inside slowly warms the system and condensation normally isn’t a hassle.

Coming right into a heat home or trailer is some other issue however as condensation will form very quickly if a damp and cool camera is delivered into heat and dry environment. A few alternatives work affordable nicely. Generally, I dry my gadget off the best I can exterior and allow it to sit in a covered location for an hour or so. At this point, I bring it indoors and haven’t had any problems. Another option is to dry the equipment as well as viable and vicinity the objects in plastic baggage. When brought right into a hotter environment any condensation should shape on the plastic and as soon as that device has warmed up to ambient temperature it must be excellent. I’m a little skeptical in this as I even have usually thought I likely have rain clouds forming inside the plastic baggage and this can’t be true! At any fee, in my many years of capturing I have best had foremost condensation troubles a few instances and while I even have had hectic moments looking all my lenses fog over they’ve constantly dried out fine with outlasting damage. Yes, I’m sure damage can be completed but do your pleasure with drying out your equipment and you possibly can be OK.

What do you do if the climate is simply so lousy that you don’t want to treat your treasured images gadget? I constantly come up with a few distinctive options. My first is to shoot in the forest or another covered vicinity and deal with near up photography and now not the grand panorama. It’s really less difficult to guard cameras without heavy rain and wind. The 2d is to live at domestic and watch for another day. While I hate to surrender, this does take place on occasion. The 1/3 for me is to discover a warm cafe or pub and just take a seat the weather out for an hour or. The climate often modifications hourly and your photography day may also have just been not on time a little.