Hazy Days at the Beach

I made it to the beach for about five days last week. I needed to recharge my mental batteries and get some new photos.

I wasn't worried about COVID since I was going to be inside or on the beach, but there were two hurricanes headed for the coast, and it rained almost the whole drive. 

Anyone who follows my blog knows how much I love the beach. It's my bliss, for sure.

I hoped for the best, and I wasn't disappointed, except for some unexpected shooting glitches.

Photographic Technical Glitches

When you're shooting in hot and humid or super cold conditions, the camera sometimes has issues. I've taken lots of photos in Florida, but I've never had quite the number of technical glitches I had this time. 

I went out at sunrise the second morning I was there. Walking outside from the air-conditioned room, the air hit me like a wet blanket. It was stifling hot and about as wet as it could be without it actually raining. 

I left my camera in the bag as I walked out to the beach to give it time to adjust to the outside conditions. When I got down on the sand, I set up my tripod, which only takes a couple of minutes.

I pulled my camera out of the bag and put it on the tripod. 

I bent over to look through the viewfinder. 

The lens and viewfinder were completely fogged over with condensation. 

"No problem," I thought. "It'll go away in a few minutes."

The camera didn't agree. 

It got worse. Here's one of the shots:

I like the shot. It's very ethereal and captures a certain mood, but it's definitely not the shot I was going for.

A few minutes later, I couldn't see anything at all through the lens. 

I wiped the outer UV protective filter with a lens cloth and then removed the filter to see if that would make a difference. It didn't. 

I think it gets fogged up from the inside. 

I didn't want to give up, though, and I knew I was getting some interesting shots, if not the shots I'd intended to get. 

The sun was rising fast. It wasn't an especially brilliant sunrise, but it was pretty. I love the sunrise light. 

I waited in the hopes that my camera would adjust and clear up. It cleared up enough for me to get some shots but it never cleared up completely. 

I like getting a painterly look and feel to my photographs, and with the condensation in the camera, I definitely got that. I wasn't crazy about some of the extreme vignetting the condensation caused around the edges but I loved the texture it gave to the photo.  

You've got to work with what you've got, right?

I liked this one a lot. 

You can see the condensation still present on the left side of the camera but it was clearing up.

Some of the hazy look in the photo was the moisture and mist in the air and not coming only from the fogging in my camera. 

I think I'll need to get my sensor cleaned and make sure there's no moisture in the camera. I learned a valuable lesson. 

The next day I put my camera in the bag out on the porch for a little while before I went out. It helped a little but not much. 

When I was in Cambodia, it was even more hot and humid out but I didn't have these problems. I'm guessing it was because the AC units were small over-the-window units that didn't keep the inside air as cold and dry as the AC in Florida. 

Looks like it's time to do some research!

That's one of the things I love about photography - there's always something to learn. 

Even though I thought they'd be no good due to all the condensation, I'm happy with the look of several of the photos. I'll be editing them and getting them up on the website soon. 

I hope you have a great rest of your week and a great Labor Day Weekend! 

I'll announce August's print winner soon!

See you between the raindrops!

xoxo,
Susan