Isn’t it a proverbial quality of grandparents — grandmothers in particular — to pull out photos at a moment’s notice and show picture after picture of their adorable grandchildren? I’ve got pictures of our darling grandson but they are digital. I guess I need to print three or four hundred of them up . . . .

I happen to listen to a variety of podcasts — financial, various speeches, technolog, Wall Street Journal. The kind that every normal woman/grandmother who is my age listens to, ya know? (My college age son was surprised when he once saw me on campus and at that moment I was listening to music! The first time in months that it was music . . . . what a waste of a Nano to listen to just podcasts, huh?)

I was listening to one podcast about digital photography. This guy is a professional. Me, well, novice is almost too high of a description. However, he mentioned something that resonated with me because of some recent experiences I’ve had.

He shared an idea of how to keep your compact camera (either digital or film) dry when you are shooting in rainy weather. On our trip to Costa Rica, we were just finishing up our visit to the La Paz waterfalls when it started to rain. This was in a tropical rain forest so of course it was a tropical rainstorm. Read that to mean lots more rain than what we see in Utah during our rainstorms.

In October 2007, I was at a conference in Seattle. My husband went with me and we had a couple of days before the conference so we went to the Olympic National Forest (and down to Forks which is the setting for the Twilight book series!). Again such rain that this little Utah person usually doesn’t experience!

On a dryer note, we were in Moab, Utah, driving in our Jeep on some of the fun 4-wheeling roads. One day it was exceedingly windy. (Wind I definitely know about!!!) Moab has red sandstone. As the forces of nature (wind) break down that sandstone, you get red sand. In the strong wind that we had that day, it felt as if we were getting sand blasted. Of course I was taking pictures. Of course that blowing sand got into the housing of the camera. Of course the sand wrecked the camera’s ability for the lens to come out so I couldn’t take pictures. Of course we had to take it to get fixed. And, of course, even though it was fixed, it really never quite worked the same like it did before the sand got in it.

Back to Costa Rica. I have a new digital camera. My husband has a new digital camera. (It was his camera that was ruined in Moab. . . .) And, when the lovely tropical rain started, we were naturally concerned about keeping our cameras dry. We tucked our cameras snugly into their cases for the evening.  I was glad that we were at the end of the day and the end of our picture taking for the moment.

But, when we were in Washington, the rain kept raining while we wanted to be taking pictures. And this is where the info from the podcast comes in.

Derrick Story has a website and podcast called The Digital Story. (What a fun play on his last name!!) I think that this information just might come in handy for some grandmothers — or anybody else who finds themselves is weather challenging conditions when they want to take pictures.

He suggested getting a shower cap (the kind that you wear to keep your hair dry while you’re in a shower). Cut a hole about the size of a quarter. Slip the cap over your camera. When you turn your camera on, the lens will zoom out through the hole that you have cut so that you can quickly take a picture. Because of the elastic around the cap, your hand can be inside the shower cap firmly holding your camera.

He also explains how Ziplock bags can also be useful. Let’s say that you are playing out in the snow with your grandchildren. They’ve built an igloo, or a snow fort or snow hut, or are playing fox and geese, or are making snow angels. You dash in to your house, grab your camera, and go outside to snap away. Everybody is having such great fun that your camera is outside in the cold for quite some time. Because you’ve read this post (or listened to his podcast) you have also grabbed a Ziplock bag before you dashed out to take pictures. When you are ready to come back in, slip the camera in the bag and zip the bag shut. Then, when you come in, as the camera warms up, the condensation will be on the outside of the Ziplock bag and not on your camera. Wait until the camera is fully warmed up before removing it from the Ziplock bag.

I’m thinking this can work in reverse for when we go to tropical climes. If my camera is in an airtight Ziplock bag while we are in the air conditioned hotel, when we go outside to the hot, humid weather (and wait until it has fully been acclimatized), then the lens won’t fog up when I want to take a picture.

Storing a camera in a Ziplock bag during a dust storm can also keep that pesky dust out of the delicate mechanism of your camera.

Now. If you are a true new millennial grandmother like I have written about earlier, you might be off to exotic places to go scuba diving. Or, maybe you are just playing with your grandchildren at a swimming pool. Derrick Story also gives hints on what you can do to weatherproof your camera so that you can take pictures when you are doing water activities and still protect your camera. (Wish I had known this while we were white water river running in Costa Rica!) The solution will cost you between $150 – $200 but if you have a pool at your home or if you are doing lots of water activities with your grandchildren, you might want to follow his suggestions!

I highly recommend you listen to his podcast. It lasts about 30 minutes and can give you some great ideas on how to protect your camera during less than perfect weather for your Kodak picture moments.

Ms. Not-At-All-Ansel Adams!
Digi-Gram