BruceHartman.net

I learned a couple of things while standing against the railing at Yavapai Point.

1. Batteries and cold weather do not mix
2. Cold air + high humidity = camera as moisture magnet

I’m not sure how to fix problem two, but I saw a clever trick on ChaseJarvis.com (via The Strobist) to help with number one. Chase uses chemical hand warmers to keep his batteries nice and toasty so as not to lose charge due to the cold.

Really, I was not prepared for how quickly my batteries died while waiting for the sun to come up Sunday morning. My batteries could stand replacing anyway, but the cold seemed to reduce their functional life from a usual hour or so of semi-steady shooting to about 20 minutes. Almost as soon as I popped one into the camera, the charge meter dropped to one bar. More evidence of the phenomenon is how quickly they recharged once I returned to the indoors.

The condensation issue is one I’ll have to research further. Assuming I hadn’t gotten out to the point as early as I had, things might have been easier to manage since the camera would have had less time to cool to the point where the humidity in the air would stick to it . As it stands, I lost a lot of photos to condensation accumulating on the front element of my lens. Once the sun came up and started burning off the moisture, the problem wasn’t such a big deal.

As big an amateur as I am in regards to photography in general, I’m a complete spazz when it comes to landscape photography. I’m planning to make a few trips up the Blue Ridge this spring with the intent of increasing my experience level so that whenever I make it back out west (Bryce… Zion… I’m looking at you), I’ll have a better idea of what to expect and to do.