Greetings followers, friends and family. My newly instituted "Friday's Foto Tip" is a new weekly post I'll be bringing you with useful tips and advice which I hope will help shed some light on certain questions and difficulties photographers sometimes face. Some you may already know and have dealt with, in which case I apologize, but since we are always learning as photographers, there will always be something new to learn at some point, and there are always others who don't know what you already know.
This week's tip aptly fits in with the harshness of summer, and the problems water photographers face with condensation and the abrupt change from 30 degree land temperatures to 10 degree water temps in places like Cape Town. But in addition, for humid places like Durban and the tropics when moisture can easily get trapped inside your housings.
Problem: Condensation Built up on the port inside a housing.
Cure: Be sure to avoid any moisture on hands or camera when setting up, or going from an air-conditioned environment to a warm exterior. Preferably setup at home in a balanced, normal "room-temperature" environment, and keep your housing in the shad en route to the beach. Once at the beach, and en route to the water, once again keep your housing in the shade, either under a towel or your fins. This should keep your housing from heating up to much, and keep it as close as possible to the water temp. Having done all this, you may still find you experience some condensation problems, but if the water is cold enough, you just can't avoid it entirely I'm afraid. But at least you'll be in for a shorter wait. I usually use the 5-10 minutes to position myself in the lineup and familiarize myself with the conditions.
The above photographers illustrate the frustration of have a good wave come through while the port of my housing was still "fogged" up. The second shot is of Deen Hill about an hour later when my housing and my body were nice a chilled.
Till next Friday's Foto Tip, good luck and pleasant shooting.
AvG
Keep The Faith, Live The Dream