Light, Drama, Action!
I’ve been back on the Isle of Harris for the past few days, getting ready for the start of a master class workshop I’m doing here.
The guys arrive today and I’m all excited now.
The weather in the UK the past few days has been somewhat ‘nuts’, and in some ways, being up in the western isles has allowed me to see better weather than most. But it has been dramatic to say the least.
I seem to be getting a penchant for rainy weather. The light has been so changeable over the past few days and for example, in the last 10 minutes I’ve just seen rainbows followed by hailstones from the window of my hotel. It’s absolutely stunning up here and I can’t wait to see what will happen over the next 4 days.
Which brings me back to the subject of weather.
One of my most recent acquisitions is an Umbrella. Dramatic light tends to happen at the edge of changing weather, whether it’s the edge of a storm coming in, or the edge of a storm passing over. It’s a challenge to keep the front lens element dry (I don’t worry about my camera getting wet as I’ve found that most gear is pretty sturdy for this kind of thing). But the one thing I do want is a dry front lens element, especially any ND grad filters I’m using. So I now have an umbrella to help me out here.
I get a lot of enquiries from people wanting to come on the workshops with me, who ask ‘what do we do if the weather is bad?’. Well, there’s no such thing as bad weather from a photographers view point. If you want to capture something exceptional, you have to be out there experiencing the moods and dramas of the light and that can often only happen when the weather is challenging.
I guess the only question then is…what brand Umbrella do you have and is it built to withstand everything the weather is going to throw at it?
;)
Comment by brendon — 20 November, 2009 @ 11:52 am
Large format photographers may not talk about photography equipment but when it comes to brollies…
I can highly recommend the Jumbo collapsible..
http://www.brolliesgalore.co.uk/acatalog/2_Jumbo_Open_Close_-_Black.html
It’s the largest collapsible you can get and it’s storm proof and colour neutral (the last is an important one.. I used a big red and black gold brolley for a while and kept wondering why I was getting colour casts on my foregrounds).
Comment by timparkin — 20 November, 2009 @ 1:04 pm
I should have added that You can get these in black and white which make for good diffuse light transmission for details on sunny days..
Comment by timparkin — 20 November, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
Thanks Bruce, very helpful. And can I say your photography is inspiring and the blog informative and always a good read. Thanks for taking the time to let us all know what you do with the insights on how you do it as well.
Comment by brendon — 20 November, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
Damn, I mean thanks Tim for the unbrella advice…
Comment by brendon — 20 November, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
I totally agree about the best light being at the edge and if you aren’t there when it changes you don’t get the picture. We learned at the Torridon workshop to expect change; another lesson I took is to keep the kit simple. You don’t want to rummage when the rain is pouring into your bag, and you don’t want to be changing kit when the light is just right. things change quickly when the weather is difficult!
and thanks Bruce for a wonderful weekend!
Comment by johnb — 27 November, 2009 @ 10:43 am