I absolutely love shooting in the rain and the Think Tank cover has made this possible.
The manufacturer of my camera claims it’s weather tolerant and I am confident it’ll be moisture tolerant in light rain for a few minutes, but not for hours on end. A vast new world of great photo ops is now wide open thanks to the Think Tank rain cover which I suggest will also be great for our winter blizzards.
There’s a magical light only found on drizzly overcast days. Now is your chance to get out with confidence knowing your treasured camera and lens will endure even a torrential downpour and stay dry.
This rain cover is very well designed and made to last for a long time. It comes in a small square black nylon bag measuring 7.5”x7.5”x 1.5” and being compressible it takes up little room so it’s a permanent resident in my bag. I have the ‘small’ rain cover and it’s the one in the accompanying photos. This bag will accommodate any full frame camera with a battery grip and any 24-70 zoom up to an 85mm 1.4 prime. There’s a medium and a large available and I’d suggest the medium would be all you’d need unless you’re privileged to own a 500 or 600mm, then it’s a large one for you. An issue with other rain cover protection gear is securing it to the camera so everything stays in place while you’re ferreting around. Think Tank’s answer is using your camera’s hot shoe as the anchor to the hot shoe tab on the inside of the cover; it’s simple and it works perfectly. The front of the cover is adjustable for any lens diameter up to 120mm and when set it’s very secure with wide Velcro straps, no elastics. Keeping track of your LCD and your ability to use the viewfinder is not a problem. As for your hand, the rear opening is large and adjustable from wide open to sealed. Yes, a premium UV filter is a must, either buy one which sheds water or give the one you have an appropriate treatment.
There’s a line in a tune about Robins being happy in the rain…
Good wet day shooting!!!
I really like the rendition of early morning light on overcast days, great saturation with open shadows. The 50mm macro Laowa on my Oly EM5 is a great combination. I slightly sharpened the water drops.
I’m shooting off my tripod, finger partially pressing the shutter button, patiently waiting for the ‘moment’. In pp I’ve slightly increased both the saturation and sharpness while dodging to add a tad of brightness to water droplets. Then I’ve burned in the edges to draw attention to the centre of the composition.
It’s a short walk from my place to the Ottawa River shoreline and here I chased countless bubbles until I finally got a few decent shots. Rainy days offer intrepid photographers beautiful light, so straight out of the camera is close to perfection, just toning down my exposure was it.
I shot a ton of frames to capture the droplet in mid air. The background was very dark, but it took a combination of burning and cloning to make it black and eliminate other leaves and stems. I like minimalism.
Our patio table has a clear plastic top so I simply position the leaf on it and made this shot. No post processing.
Rain droplets on clear patio table top. Had fun shuffling the leaves around. I did have to clone out some really dark areas on the 2 orange leaves.
I shot through the car’s windshield and needing super depth of focus f16 held it together nicely. In pp I was selective where I added saturation and sharpness and I also cloned out some cluttering water droplets.
Torrential rain, shot at the right moment and was blessed with good luck! The rain droplets turned to streaks at 1/200 while the burst off the crank was magically captured nice and sharp. PP I increased sharpness along with contrast to bring out the white of the droplets.
I always attempt a feeling of the ‘the moment’, so I waited for the man walking his dog to also balance to this composition. In post processing I’ve added noise, increased saturation and applied local sharpening to the 3 iron posts.
This is straight out of the camera where I’d dialed in more saturation along with contrast and sharpness. I try to do as much as I can with the menu options so pp will be minimal. I never shoot RAW.
Early morning soft light, light misty rain, beautiful light. Laowa macro 50mm lens. I did selectively add a bit of saturation and burned in the white petals. Nothing more in pp.
About the Author – Crombie McNeill
Crombie McNeill is a unique artist. He’s a world travelled photographer with numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the best editorial photographers in North America. His credits include Time, Newsweek, ELLE, Life, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Chatelaine, Paris Match, McLean’s, En Route to name but a few.
His Odyssey lead him from the Arctic to high fashion magazine shoots to Olympic Games, World Cup events, the depths of the Great Barrier Reef to the altitude with the Snow Birds, interwoven with civil war in Africa, Royalty, presidents to paupers world wide. Not to mention frozen toes at the North Pole.
His photography has been exhibited in galleries across Canada, the United States and Europe and has three books to his credit.
Not one to leave behind the uniqueness of traditional film he’s evolved a blending of photography with both hand applied and computer processing to produce truly unique images.
“The art of photography for me” says Crombie “is to convey a timeless essence with a hint of mystery”.
The National Archives predicts he will be credited as one of Canada’s most significant photographers and is on the list for The Order of Canada. The National Art Gallery of Canada has some of his fine art b&w prints included in their permanent collection.
Crombie is now happily retired, in that he no longer accepts editorial or commercial assignments He now lives in Aylmer, with his wife Sue. “This retirement”, he’s delighted to says, “allows me the freedom to search for those magical b&w images, and to determine the ideal technique by which it should be captured and presented.
Crombie often returns to the peaceful amber glow of his wet darkroom as a respite from his extensive digital lab and art board.
Please enjoy!
Thanks for sharing this post!
Simon @ thinkTank