Why I love Fall, and Pentax.

by Ben

After 14 months of living in Colorado, all the while proclaiming it's superiority from the top of every big mountain I climb, I'm beginning to remember the beauty of the Northeast. Most people would agree that no time is more beautiful than the fall. Last week, Genny and I were having a nice, relaxing rainy day, hanging out at her parents' house, when the urge struck to go take pictures. Genny's latest entry for her photo blog at Backpacker.com is about how to get good images on cloudy days, so we decided to take it one step further and see what we could get on a downright rainy day.

Rainy days definitely seem to be the most avoided by photographers. I would wager that more photographers go out to shoot at night, than go out in the rain. There's something to be said about not taking expensive electronics out into the rain, but as an outdoor/adventure photographer, I decided that that being afraid of the elements is not acceptable.

Enter Pentax.



When Genny and I were researching what camera system to buy into, one of the factors that made us choose Pentax was their extreme level of weatherproofing. We've always known it was there, and appreciated it's existence, but it had never really been put to the test, beside a few

minutes in the occasional afternoon shower. This rainy afternoon was the perfect time to see if these cameras can take as much as they say; and the answer would either be 'yes' or 'I need a new camera.'

The photo above shows how wet my camera was after 2 minutes, and both cameras continued getting poured on for another 2 hours. It was fun spending time out when most people would pack it up, and two things were learned from this rainy day out:


1. I don't need a new camera. Still want one though... (I promise I wasn't trying to ruin my camera so that I had to get a newer one.)

2. Shooting in the rain provides a great opportunity to capture the world around you in a unique way that can make ordinary scenes pop to life.