How do you deal with the wind (strong)

[Arthurwg]

Might try standing up wind of the camera with a large, sturdy golf umbrella.

 

[MattKing]

Might try standing up wind of the camera with a large, sturdy golf umbrella.

?

 

[Fatih Ayoglu]

Thank you all, a pushed HP5 is the way to go now, I can handhold my 35mm camera or 500CM.

And next time I should pack my Fuji 6x9 rather than LF probably.

 

[DREW WILEY]

What is golf? Rarely have I hiked or photographed on terrain smooth enough for a riding lawnmower. Even the golf course atop the ridge behind me probably has some downed cypress trees today due to all the high winds the last two days. Only the gophers who live down in those little course holes would have been decently sheltered from the wind.
Speaking of which, I should get outside and rake up some more branches before the wind and rain starts up again.

 

[loccdor]

There are also mounting options like clamping your camera to a piece of metal, or placing the camera atop an object like a stone/concrete wall and then weighing it down with something heavy. These may limit your composition somewhat, but if you're sufficiently wide angle for what you're trying to do and comfortable with cropping later, it doesn't matter.

 

[Pioneer]

Might try standing up wind of the camera with a large, sturdy golf umbrella.

I don't think we are talking about the same kind of winds. Your umbrella will most likely be inside out in short order, assuming you could even hold onto it.

 

[GregY]

I've had my 810 Deardorff (on a big Ries tripod) dumped in a ditch by a strong wind. Thankfully there was a lot of tall dry grass and no damage resulted. These days I'd use my Rolleiflex on a Gitzo metal.....it's a smaller windsock!

 

[Keith Pitman]

Photograph rocks and dirt: they don’t move so much.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Sometimes it's fun to shoot swirling grass in the wind with a long exposure time, while having completely stationary rocks or buildings in the scene retaining their high detail. But the logistics of that might mean finding a camera position sheltered from the wind behind a big tree or boulder, so it doesn't shake.

 

[Arthurwg]

I don't think we are talking about the same kind of winds. Your umbrella will most likely be inside out in short order, assuming you could even hold onto it.

I did say a "sturdy golf umbrella." They can stand more than a little wind. In that case you probably should not try to photograph with a bellows camera. Might try a specialized Linhof aero camera.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Golf umbrella in the mountains, or even our spring coastal winds here? Might as well be attached to a hang-glider and find out where you're going to land.

I once spent a night inside a crack in the huge boulder on a peak summit, trying to hold my tent together from inside, with hurricane force winds roaring overhead as loud as a jet. The next morning it was quiet, and there were 8 ft long icicles projecting completely horizontal from the face of the cliff. If it hadn't been for that large crack in the boulder, everything would have blown off, including me. And that was hardly a unique experience for me, back when I took my Sinar monorail system everywhere, extra-long bellows included.

Technique-wise, I could still be doing that. I got many great shots by learning how to anticipate and time the winds. But now I'm just too old and lazy. Had high winds most of last week, and finally a calm afternoon yesterday. Simply grabbed the 6X9 RF. I am hoping for a reasonable weather break in January, like we often get here, to get out with the 8x10 again. But everything is so unpredictable these days, climate-wise.

 

[lecarp]

Many people use Beano!

 

[Alan9940]

I spent so many years trying to time long(ish) 8x10 exposures between winds gusts that I finally gave up and embraced the wind. Told myself that movement in the image is good thing!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

...Don't forget. Photographing in strong winds can be dangerous, as this idiot knows first hand...

 

[tcolgate]

Pinhole and embrace the blur

 

[Tom Taylor]

I always keep a large “wind proof” golf umbrella in the trunk specifically to deal with windy situations. I have a salt print that was made from an Ilford Delta 100 negative taken with a Toyo-Field 810MII camera fitted with a 360mm Schneider lens all sitting on a Gitzo G1348 series 3 tripod. I was standing on a narrow bluff overlooking a Beach below with the ocean, where the gale was blowing in from, to my left. There were no break between gusts where the wind intensity reached a zero point only a nadir where it reached its lowest intensity. Once I had the camera focused and the film holder inserted I positioned the umbrella in my left hand to the polint where it completely blocked the wind against the camera body and bellows while maintaining contact with the tripod with a couple of fingers just in case and tripped the shutter with the right hand at a nadir. I was surprised to see that no vibration showed up in the negative. Most of my “windy” shots are much less dramatic as I don't shoot during gales, but when it's breezy the umbrella saves the negative.