Rainy Daze

Once in awhile we get some rain in Bakersfield and usually I stay indoors, but this past weekend my buddy Rob mentioned he was going to photograph a model and hopefully get some rainy weather images.  I secured a model for the shoot and packed up my Mamiya, 35mm Film camera, and dSLR and headed downtown.  Brian met us at the local coffee shop and we prepped our gear for the rain.  "Prep" refers to buying a box of one gallon plastic bags and rubber bands to enclose the cameras.  I also brought along my tripod, an SB-900, two pocket wizards and an old lightstand.



As we started shooting, the rain began to fall steadily, which made it difficult to use my Waist-Level viewfinder on my Mamiya, so I put it away and switched to my 35mm camera.  As I started "stealing" shots of Rob's model, I received a TXT from my model stating she was in a fender-bender and couldn't make the shoot. 

To all you models, please rethink becoming a model, I've had cancellations from models due to: 1) death in the family, 2) car accidents, 3) vomiting, 4) menses, and 5)unreliable transportation.  Be honest and don't commit to a shoot, especially if you aren't into it.

Brian and I basically watched Rob and Nicole work, while we "B.S.'ed" then once the rain increased we decided to head to The Padre to get out of the rain and try some more emotive images.  Nicole was really open to all three of us working with her to get different looks and as we decided to head back out, Brian wanted to try an environmental shot with the Prospect Bar in the shot.  I pulled out my SB-900, handed it to Brian and used Nikon CLS to trigger the speedlight.  I decided to bounce the flash off the white walls to overpower most of the ambient fluorescent lighting.  Tried a couple shots, changed the flash power and settled for this image.

After a few more minutes, we called "wrap" and headed to HOOTERS for Fried Pickles. Definitely a fun experiment for me and learned somethings about shooting in the rain.

What did I learn?

• Get better Rain Gear for my cameras - Although nothing was damaged, I struggled with trying to focus and keeping the lens devoid of rain spots.
• Don't sweat the small stuff - Even though my model canceled, I still got some decent images of this cool Honda Metro scooter

By the way, the first image of the post is a private joke among us guys and the use, or misuse of Selective Color.