When working outdoors here in the Pacific Northwest the weather is a constant challange. This is especially true when working with models. It is completely understandable that some people may not want to pose when the weather gets too cold, or too hot, or as can be the case with many days around here, far too wet. Everyone knows it rains a lot in Oregon.
Every once in a while I’ll work with someone who not only doesn’t mind the rain, but actually thrives in it. I try to make it a point not to shy away from such opportunities and embrace the challenges that come with working outdoors in wet weather. On this particular day I offered to switch our photo session to an indoor studio but the model wouldn’t have it. It was take pictures in the rain or bust!
Photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR and Ilford HP5 120 film.
It’s a little tough to tell in these photographs but there was a steady flow of rainfall coming down along Collins Beach on Sauvie Island. Keeping the camera dry was nearly impossible and every time I went to reload the camera the film rolls got soaking wet. The speckled texture on the film emulsion that you can see in these photographs is from the backing paper on the rolls of 120 film disintegrating in the rain. I brought a few towels with me and would keep one over my head trying to shield my equipment from the rain, but the effort didn’t do much good. After a while I just gave up and crossed my fingers I would still have something worth developing when I got home.
Luckily the air was very very still and there was no wind at all, which meant it was not very cold. Once the model and I just embraced the fact that we were going to be soaking wet the overall experience was quite pleasant in fact. Ultimately we ended up staying out on location far longer than we thought we would. It certainly didn’t hurt that the rain meant the beach was completely empty. We were the only two people for miles in either direction up and down the beach.
Photographed with a Mamiya C330 TLR and Ilford HP5 120 film.
To hedge my bets a little, because I was not super confident I was going to get good results on film, I did a rare thing and brought a digital camera along with me as well. Ironically the digital camera proved more difficult to use in the rain and I only exposure about twenty or so frames with it. The viewfinder and the back screen kept fogging up making them totally useless so all I could do was point the camera in the general direction of the model and let all the automatic controls take over.
I had no such issues with the Mamiya C330 TLR. The focusing ground glass would fog up a little if I stuck my face right up to it or used the magnifier like I normally do, but so long as I kept the ground glass at arms length I could see through it just fine. Given the fact that the Mamiya is also 100% mechanical with no electronics to speak of, I wasn’t too worried about letting it get a little wet.
Photographed with a Sony A7iii mirrorless digital camera.
If I waited around all the time for perfect weather I would probably never get outside to make photographs. Admittedly, doing a photo session in the pouring rain might be a little extreme, but getting outside and actually doing the work without making excuses is the most important takeaway for me here.