Digital Photo Tip: Improvised Rain Cover
Last month when I was on a bus tour of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania gardens with the Garden Writers Association I got caught out without my usual rain cover for my camera. We only had 20-30 minutes in each tour garden and I certainly wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to photograph lush and beautiful gardens just because it was raining and I didn’t have proper protection for my camera. I really like the look of a garden in the rain.
But how could I protect my expensive camera and lens? I was on a bus with over 50 other people and no way to stop and buy anything. I had to improvise with whatever was at hand and my choices were limited.
The sandwich in our box lunch had come wrapped in plastic. I pulled my sandwich wrap out of the trash and checked that it wasn’t slimy with mayonnaise or turkey grease. It appeared clean enough and looked sufficiently large to cover my camera body and lens. So off I went, with my camera draped in used plastic wrap.
It wasn’t a perfect solution; some water inevitably got on my camera, but the plastic wrap gave a lot more protection than holding my hat over my camera. I was able to wipe my camera dry with my cotton bandana when I got back on the bus.
The moral of the story? Photographers are problem solvers. Sometimes its a photo problem and sometimes it’s as simple as figuring out how to keep your camera dry.