Shooting under the rain (and a camera rain coat DIY)

I know that I already took some photography stuff even under the rain, but that happened in a fast moment in taking pics and not entirely staying under the rain. The shoot earlier is a challenge for me and I didn't expected that the rain is still my friend and the enemy are the umbrellas of other people standing beside me (of course Chinky and Myke are not included here).

It was a wet and wild shoot and I managed to carry my umbrella on my left hand, right hand for my camera and another right hand for my Samsung Galaxy Y with Smartnet. I got busy taking pics and trying to get a good shot of the band playing on stage while on tip top and try to avoid those giant umbrellas infront of me and infront of the stage of the concert. The only problem that I encountered are water splashes from umbrellas near me, because of the heavy rains, water splashes to me after they dropped on other people's umbrella, there I noticed that my camera and lens got splashed wet. I got worried that this is not a good sign and I must retreat and put my camera back into the bag.

The rain stopped after some hours and the show went on successfully, I went home and got worried that I might catch a cold and I should stay healthy and okay for my little boy here at home and never give him colds. After I arrive home, I researched on things that should be done if ever your camera got wet or splashed by rain water. Found some useful tips online and thanks to some blogs, forums and websites giving tips on how to take care of your cameras.

I learned that I must remove the battery and let the doors of the battery and card reader opened, just to let the wet water out of its body and also a way of not short circuiting your camera that's why we remove the battery pack. For lenses, they should stand on the other side and not standing and the lens sensor are below it. I read that some photographers uses low level of a hot blower just to keep the camera and lenses dry, and this will be used to dry the wet splashes and avoid the spread of water. Others tried their camera sit on a uncooked rice, they say that the rice will absorb any moisture and other splashed liquid.

I also forgot that I should bring always a camera rain cover, I saw in some local camera stores that they sell those camera rain cover, its like a rain coat for your camera and lenses. Its a little bit pricey but many suggested that with the use recycled plastic materials at home, you can create your own home made camera rain coat.

I dd a little research and found this discussion in Flickr and they showed this DIY camera rain coat

Its a cool idea that the camera is now protected against rain splashes
photo via http://www.jacquelinehouse.net/images/raincover.jpg

and here's a DIY version



I need this now and having a long rain cover will also protect your telephoto lens
I'll try to make one for my camera later and let's see if it will be very useful (if ever I get the correct DIY design ehhee)