What do you do when the weather sucks and you’ve already made plans to go out shooting with friends ? If you’re me, you embrace the grey, the rain, the wind and the cold and you go anyway.

This past week my good friend Jon (@Dinoczars) reached out and said he had a rare weekend when he was free and wanted to know if anyone was available to go shooting with him. Now mind you, Jon recently had a baby and hasn’t been out shooting for a while, August to be exact. So when he reached out my response was an automatic “yes!”.  I was watching the weather forecast all week and the chance of rain had been vacillating between 30% and 60%. Not exactly a weather forecast to get excited about. In fact Seattle has had a pretty wet winter this year. I think we were spoiled last year when we were in the thick of a nasty drought. Those cold, clear days were a photographers dream. This year, cold, grey days with a constant chance of rain are more normal.

But like the intrepid north westerners we are, we did not let the weather stop us. Jon and I went out both days, Saturday with Wiiman and Carteraug21 and on Sunday with Bear__Trap. Both days were cold, we had rain both days and high winds on Saturday (mini figs do not do well in the wind!). While Sunday was just plain grey,  we were blessed with a little golden hour sun on Saturday.

Despite the weather I was happy I went out with my friends. We had a chance to catch up as well as continue planning the upcoming Seattle Toy Meet-up. I didn’t manage to capture any obvious gems, but I was able to try out a few ideas that have been bouncing around in my head. By trying these ideas out in bad weather, I know I will have a better chance of nailing the shot once the light is better.

So my advice to you is that no matter how awful the weather is, you should take out your toys and go photograph them; you never know what you will come back with. Just make sure you have pants you can get wet and muddy, boots that are waterproof, something to lay or kneel on, and a good pair of gloves and a warm hat.

…and of course a good selection of toys.

~ Shelly

What is the worst weather you’ve ever shot in? What is your temperature limit? How rainy? How snowy? What do you do when the wind is up?