Caring for your photography equipment in the rain

It isn't a good idea to allow digital cameras to get wet in the rain. If it penetrates into the camera it can damage the electronics. But sometimes you have to shoot in the rain, and when you do, you will have to protect it in some way.

Buy a pack of six cloth household dusters, the kind that are used for wiping the dust from furniture. Pack them in your camera bag, but don't just push the pack of cloths into your bag, this will use up valuable space - it will probably use up an entire compartment of your bag.

Instead, wrap a couple of them around your camera and do the same with your accessories. For example, if you have a separate flashgun, wrap a couple of cloths around this, if you have an extra lens, wrap a couple of cloths around this, etc.

If your camera and accessories do get wet, you can wipe them dry with the cloths before you put them back into your bag. If the cloths finish up completely wet, you can put them into one of the camera bag's spare side pockets until you get home (don't pack them into a side pocket which has other photography equipment in it).

You can also use the dusters to wipe any dust from your camera lens. But be cautious about this, because prolonged wiping can damage the delicate coating of the lens. Consider fitting a UV filter over the lens. These are relatively cheap - cheaper than replacing a damaged lens for a digital SLR camera anyway - so you can wipe them as often as you have to do.

Your camera and accessories will be bulkier if they have dusters wrapped around them so you might have to expand the compartments of your camera bag to fit them in.

I'm a full-time professional photographer and there are more photography articles on my Paul Gooch Images web site.