Shooting a duck

I was hoping yesterday to get the chance to photograph one on Dublin’s fine libraries at lunchtime, but the rain scuppered my plans.   As the rain continued to fall I had the thought that it was a fine day for ducks, so seeing as how I had my camera with me and I was in town anyway, I decided to take a wander over to St. Stephen’s Green and shoot one.

The rain was bucketing down so I was glad I had two things – an umbrella, and my waterproof camera bag.  I’ve gone through a number of camera bags in my time, and usually in each I eventually find flaws that allow me to justify the purchase of a new one.  I started out with a compact backpack, but soon found that I wanted to be able to carry my laptop and camera together, so that prompted the purchase of a bigger backpack that could fulfil this requirement.

At weddings however, either backpack was awkward, so when I purchased my D300 I was glad to get a free shoulder bag with it.  This served me well, and was big enough to hold the camera, a couple of lenses and a flash, but it had one flaw – it wasn’t weather proof.  After one particular day where alot of my gear got wetter than I would have liked, and with another wedding coming up, I bought a Lowepro Stealth Reporter D300.

This is as sturdy a shoulder bag as you’ll find – if it has a flaw, it is that it’s bulky, but it continues to serve me well, and I can fit my D300, 4 lenses, two flashes, a mini softbox, a voice recorder, a spare battery, a few ball bungees, two speedlight feet and a notebook in there.  Of course with all that it gets heavy, so depending on what I am going to photograph I’ll downsize the kit I’m carrying.

It served me well in the rain yesterday too as I took the image above.  I had one hand on the umbrella so took this shot with my other free hand, using a wide aperture to get a fast shutter to freeze the circular pools on the water from the rain drops.  It was a quick “photoshoot” as I was get keen to get back indoors and out of the rain.

Thanks to my trusty camera bag when I returned to the office my gear was bone dry.  Despite the umbrella, I can’t say the same was true for the rest of me.