When It Rains, Get Out And Shoot!

Grand mountain vistas, spectacular Autumn color, and a beautiful mountain top sunset,

are what I wanted for my trip to the White Mountains to capture fall foliage images this past Sunday, but what I got was rain. Not a heavy rain, but on and off, mostly on, showers all day long. And when it wasn’t raining, there was always a steady drizzle. Not that I minded much, the color in norther New Hampshire was spectacular! And the overcast conditions really made the colors all the more vibrant and saturated. The colors were popping in the Whites, that’s for sure!

Silver Cascade, Crawford Notch, NH.

(Arguably the most spectacular falls in the White Mountains that you can see from your car).

Stay home where it’s dry?

Not likely. With a tight schedule, and a short window of opportunity for the best fall color in White Mountains, I wasn’t about to let a little rain put a damper on my plans. I packed a few towels, several plastic bags of various sizes, and I headed north.

As soon as it became clear that the weather wasn’t going to cooperate, one word popped into my head, “Waterfalls!” New Hampshire’s White Mountains are loaded with waterfalls of all shapes and sizes. I haven’t photographed many of them, and none of them in Autumn, so if I couldn’t capture the mountain top sunset I had hoped for, then a few nice waterfalls surrounded by some spectacular Autumn color would have to do.

Lower Falls on the Swift River, Albany, NH. 

(Not quite peak color yet. In the summer, Lower Falls is a very popular swimming hole, and the rocks and water would be covered in people)

Ripley Falls, Hart’s Location, NH.

(This was my first visit to Ripley Falls, but unfortunately it was a short one. Since the rain was getting a little heavier, I took off my sweatshirt and grabbed my rain jacket. All day long I was constantly using a micro-fiber cloth to wipe rain drops off the front of my lens. I kept the cloth in the front pocket on my sweatshirt, guess where it stayed after the wardrobe change. I was only able to make three exposures before I lost the battle with rain drops on my lens. This was the only “keeper.” In an effort to keep the rain at bay, I held my hat over the lens, so of the three exposures I made, one had my fingers in it, and another had the bill of my hat, both deleted)

“No Swimming.” Rocky Gorge, Swift River, Albany, NH.

(My favorite image from a wet day in the mountains, and my favorite so far of Rocky Gorge).

Tips for shooting in the rain.

Keep it dry, as much as possible anyway. Unless you have a weather sealed camera body and lenses, try to keep as much moisture from them as possible. While there are many commercially available rain covers on the market, I went the DIY route with large clear plastic bags to help keep the elements at bay. Though if it was only a light drizzle, I just kept a had towel with me to periodically wipe the camera down. I also took the camera out of whatever bag or “rain cover” it had been in and set it on a towel on the car seat while driving between locations, giving the camera a chance to dry out a bit.

Keep a micro-fiber cloth handy, and use it. Constantly check the front element of your lens for water droplets. There isn’t much worse than having to delete that “winner” shot because you didn’t notice the water drop on the lens.

Use a circular polarizer when shooting on rainy, foggy days. It will help remove the glare from wet foliage, and really make the colors pop.

Finally, if it isn’t already, get your gear insured. Adding it to your homeowners or renters insurance is pretty cheap, and takes some of the stress out of shooting in potentially camera killing conditions, knowing that should anything go wrong your gear is covered.

Focus on the intimate.

With even the lowest peaks in the White Mountains with their heads in the clouds, grand scenic images were all but impossible. A good idea is to focus on small portraits of the beautiful color before your eyes.

Be careful, use your head, but most of all, don’t let a little rain keep you from that fall color. It’s only here for a very short time, enjoy it while you can.

This is also part of Ailsa’s Weekly Travel Challenge, the theme is Foliage. You can see more entries here.

October 4, 2012 | Categories: Landscape, Nature, New England, New Hampshire, Photography, Vision | Tags: autumn, birch trees, circular polarizer, clouds, color, crawford notch nh, fog, foliage, gold, jeff sinon photography, Kancamagus Highway, Lower Falls, maple leaf, micro fiber cloth, mist, Nature, new hampshire, orange, outdoors, postaweek2012, rain, red, Ripley Falls, Rocky Gorge, scenic, Silver Cacade, travel, waterfalls, weekly photo challenge, Weekly travel challenge, White Mountains, yellow | 42 Comments »