This weekend was a bit of a wash out for me. I had made arrangements with a good friend to visit the Lake District on the Saturday to shoot some landscapes. This was something we were both looking forward to as we tend to shoot Urban during the summer months and traditional landscapes in autumn, winter and spring when the light is better.

At Saturday approached we were busy watching the weather on Met Check which was reporting showers for the Saturday with broken cloud. The BBC weather was however reporting rain and drizzle throughout the day but being the optimists we are, we were prepared to shoot in the rain as it often gives rise to atmospheric images. We decided therefore to focus our efforts in woodland and the edge of lakes as we might gain some shelter from the trees. In the end the rain fluctuated between heavy and torrential. The only thing we could say was that it rained constantly from our arrival through to our departure.

Whilst we were prepared to shoot in the rain, the problem we had was that our equipment was too large and bulky and as a result was getting soaked. I was shooting with both a Canon 5D and a medium Format Pentax 67, whilst my friend was using a Hasselblad 501 (again Medium Format). Thinking back to all the successful shoots I have had in the rain, all of them were using small cameras such as the NEX-5, Canon 400D and the LX5. This goes to show that gear matters for it’s practical characteristics more than we appreciate. Whilst my kit might have allowed me to produce great quality, this is lost if you can’t physically use it due to the conditions. Next time I head out in the rain I will be packing the LX5 or perhaps GF1.