You get off a 10 hour flight around 5am and then take the taxi to your hotel. You’ve landed in Fiji, starting off your 10-day vacation of a lifetime. You check in and drop off your luggages at your room and are itching to explore the area. The sun is just starting out to peak above the horizon, so what do I do? I hurry and take out my camera, walk out to the beach, and take this photo.
Looking at my LCD screen to see what I just captured, I realize that isn’t exactly what I’m seeing in front of my eyes. What’s wrong? Why is it so faded and white all over? I look at my camera and then reality hits. The air was so humid that it had completely fogged up my lens when I took it out of my bag. It was so bad that immediately after taking this shot, I could barely see anything in the viewfinder for my next shot. I tried wiping off the lens, but it would only get fogged up immediately after.
So, why does this happen? When you take your camera out of one environment and expose it to the next extreme environment, your camera and lens need time to adjust to the new environment. If you don’t let it adjust, you’ll end up with pictures like the above.
Do you ever see people wearing eye glasses defog them when they come in from the cold and into the warmth. It’s the same concept of acclimatization.
To prevent this from happening, always remember to acclimatize your gear by gradually exposing it to the new environment. In my case, I could have left my entire camera bag outside on the porch for a while until it got accustomed to the humid air outside. That way, when I take my camera out, it would already have been exposed to the humidity that the lens would not have fogged up.
Don’t let great moments like this pass you by because your lens gets fogged up! Be prepared!
Do you have any moments like this? I’d love to hear about them if you do!