Cats and Dogs

Lea Sjövall and I met up for a weekend photoshoot. Originally our plan was to photograph in the morning, but earlier weather reports during the week said it would rain in the morning and then clear up, so we rescheduled to afternoon to get a chance of some decent weather. The morning of the shoot arrived, and the skies were cloudy but no rain. So it continued until around lunchtime when it started to pour down. It rained cats and dogs. I grabbed an umbrella and a plastic bag to cover the camera, put on some clothes that could handle the rain, and headed out to meet Lea at the train station. We went down to Kråkudden, our plan was to shoot for a little while, then head indoors.

This must have been the wettest photoshoot in a while, by the end of it we were both drenched. The good thing was that the summer rain was quite warm, so it was not entirely unpleasant to be in it. We used my umbrella to keep our bags dry, but that meant the only thing protecting the camera was a plastic bag with a hole cut in it. The front of the lens, and the back of the camera as well as my glasses were exposed to the rain. So after a while I had to take off my glasses to be able to see anything. As the water built up on the lens the pictures got progressively less contrast. I must admit that I was a bit surprised afterwards at how much of a difference that made. Normally I would wipe my lens often, but this time I had no tissues to do it with. So we used a shirt a couple of times to clear the front element of the lens of water.

We were only photographing in the rain for about half an hour, but we took a lot of great pictures. With shoes full of water we headed back towards my apartment. Stopping to grab a sandwich at Gateau before finally getting a chance to escape the torrential rain. After looking through the photos and having a bit to eat we did the second half of the photoshoot in the green room.

There is some truth to the saying “the worse weather, the better the pictures”. It might not have been the easiest weather to photograph in, but it was definitely worth it. Many thanks to Lea for a fun photoshoot!

Instagram: Lea, Johannes

— Johannes