You may recall that I tried going to Channahon State Park earlier in May after the governor opened some of the state parks. It was way too busy at that point to maintain proper social distancing so I headed elsewhere. Today has been a cool, rainy day in northern Illinois so I guessed and hoped that there wouldn’t be as many people. That proved to be a safe assumption.
I’ve always loved taking pictures in a steady rain. There’s a beautiful softness to the light along with really saturated colors thanks to the wet sheen on everything. There’s also an element of uniqueness to the images because so few photographers are willing to work in the rain.
I have to say that a huge part of my attraction to large format probably stems from an image of a photographer working in similar conditions. Philip Greenspun featured a photograph of a dedicated large format photographer working in the rain in Glacier National Park. That image opened up a whole new world to me. Previous to that, I’d never even pondered shooting in the rain. I postulated that if this guy was going through the effort of shooting a labor intensive and slow format in those conditions, there must be a good reason. That single image led to me both embracing the rain and big cameras.
2 Comments
I have yet to photograph in the rain, for two reasons: (1) I hate being rained on and (2) I’m not sure if any of my old cameras can take the abuse! However, my Pentax K10D digital can, it’s weather sealed.
One thing to remember about the K10D is that it does require a weather sealed lens to be completely weatherproof. A cheap option is the DA 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AL Weather Resistant. These can be easily found for under $100 on the used market (KEH has them ranging from $39 to $72 at the moment).
That being said, I’ve actually never used a completely weatherproof system in the rain. I’ve owned a few weather resistant bodies from Pentax and Nikon but have never bought resistant lenses to complete the package. I’ve also shot with plenty of bodies, both film and digital, that weren’t sealed in rainy/snowy weather. Knock on wood, I’ve never had a problem. I’ve done this so much that the only thing I worry about anymore is fungal growth after a rain outing. This is especially true now that I’m back in the midwest (In Pueblo’s semi-arid environment, high humidity never lasted long, even after heavy rains).
When I get home, I make sure to get my gear out and take all caps and such off so that everything can air out. After especially egregious soakings, I’ll be sure to throw a desiccant packet into my camera bags even after everything has had time to air.