Filming in the Rain – When the Weather Doesn’t Read the Call Sheet

There’s a romantic idea of filming outdoors: golden light, still air, obedient clouds.
Reality, especially in the UK, is drizzle… turning into proper rain… just as you press record.

Rain doesn’t mean filming stops. It just means filming changes.

🌧️ The Enemy Isn’t Rain – It’s Moisture Where You Don’t Want It

Cameras are tougher than we give them credit for, but water in the wrong place ends a shoot very quickly. A few basics make all the difference:

• Rain covers – proper ones if you have them, plastic bags if you don’t

• Lens hoods – not just for flare; they keep droplets off the front element

• Microfibre cloths – plural, because the first one gets wet instantly

If the rain is light, you can often keep filming between showers and wipe down between takes. Heavy rain? Change your plan, not your pride.

🎙️ Audio Suffers Before Video

Video can look moody in the rain. Audio usually sounds dreadful.

• Raindrops on jackets = percussion section you didn’t ask for

• Wind + rain = microphone misery

• On-camera mics are usually the first to give up

Lavalier mics under clothing, furry windshields, or even recording audio separately under shelter can save a project.

☁️ The Light Is Actually… Quite Nice

Overcast rain clouds act like a giant softbox. No harsh shadows, no squinting subjects, and very even exposure. It’s not dramatic sunshine – but it’s forgiving, especially for faces.

Rainy footage also works brilliantly for:

• Cutaways

• Atmosphere shots

• Time-lapse sequences

• “Behind the scenes” moments

Sometimes the weather adds character you didn’t plan for.

🧠 The Real Skill: Knowing When to Stop

There’s a fine line between dedication and stupidity (most camera operators learn this the wet way).

If:

• Water is getting inside connectors

• Lenses are fogging internally

• You’re rushing and making mistakes

…that’s your cue to stop, dry everything properly, and live to film another day.

🎬 Final Thought

Rain doesn’t ruin filming. Unprepared filming ruins filming.

With a bit of planning, a sense of humour, and a towel or two, wet-weather shoots can produce some of the most atmospheric footage you’ll ever capture.

 

An IR View of Winter

Winter looks quiet.
Bare trees. Brown grass. Frosted mornings. A landscape apparently asleep.

But switch to infrared, and winter tells a very different story.

What infrared sees (that our eyes don’t)

Infrared photography doesn’t record colour as we see it. Instead, it records reflected near-infrared light, which vegetation reflects strongly when it’s alive and photosynthesising.

That means:

• Healthy vegetation often appears bright white

• Stressed or dead vegetation appears dark

• Soil, water, buildings, and paths stay comparatively muted

So even in winter — when everything looks lifeless — IR reveals what’s still ticking away under the surface.

Grass: brown to blazing white

One of the biggest winter surprises is grass.

To the naked eye, winter grass often looks dull, muddy, and half-dead. In infrared, it frequently glows bright white — proof that:

• Chlorophyll is still present

• Photosynthesis is still happening

• Growth hasn’t stopped, it’s just slowed

This is particularly striking on mild winter days when grass is dormant rather than dead.

Trees: not all “bare” is equal

Deciduous trees lose their leaves, but that doesn’t mean the story ends there.

In infrared:

• Some trees show residual reflectivity in buds and fine twigs

• Others appear completely dark, genuinely dormant

• Evergreens stand out strongly, clearly alive and active

Two trees side by side that look identical in visible light can behave very differently in IR — a great reminder that appearances are misleading.

Frost and cold mornings

Frosty scenes are especially interesting:

• Frost itself reflects IR differently from living tissue

• Early morning shots can show sharp contrast between frozen ground and still-active vegetation

• As the sun rises, IR reflectivity changes rapidly — winter scenes evolve fast

It’s one of the few times of year where revisiting the same spot an hour later can produce a dramatically different image.

Winter isn’t dead — it’s paused

Infrared photography gently challenges the idea that winter is lifeless. Instead, it shows:

• Survival strategies

• Energy conservation

• Life waiting, not gone

Under the surface, plants are still functioning, just playing the long game until spring.

For teaching, photography, or simply seeing familiar places in a new way, infrared turns winter from a grey waiting room into a quiet, ongoing experiment in survival.

Using a Steady Gimbal or In-Camera Stabilisation? 

If you want smoother video, you’ve got two main tools in your kit:

a physical gimbal or in-camera stabilisation.
Both promise steady footage — but they behave very differently in the real world.

After years of filming science experiments, lessons, sailing, family life, and the occasional slightly chaotic slipway launch, here’s how they really compare.

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What a gimbal does well

A gimbal physically isolates the camera from your movement using motors and sensors.

Pros

• Ultra-smooth motion for walking shots

• Perfect for reveals, tracking shots, and cinematic moves

• Keeps horizons level even when you aren’t

Cons

• Takes time to balance and set up

• Extra kit to charge, carry, and protect

• Can feel overkill for quick or spontaneous filming

A gimbal shines when:

• You know you’ll be moving a lot

• The shot is planned

• You want that unmistakably “cinematic glide”

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What in-camera stabilisation does well

In-camera stabilisation (IBIS, digital stabilisation, or a mix) works by compensating for small movements electronically or mechanically.

Pros

• Always available — no setup

• Perfect for quick shots and teaching demos

• Much lighter and less intrusive

Cons

• Can struggle with walking or running

• Digital stabilisation may crop the image

• Sudden movements can still look… sudden

In-camera stabilisation shines when:

• Filming handheld explanations

• Shooting in tight spaces

• You need to react fast (students, boats, wildlife…)

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The “floating head” problem

One thing gimbals can introduce is the slightly unnatural floating look.
For teaching videos, science demos, and anything where realism matters, this can feel distracting rather than helpful.

Sometimes a little natural movement actually feels more human — and more watchable.

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The hybrid approach (the sweet spot)

In practice, the best results often come from combining both:

• Use in-camera stabilisation as your default

• Add a gimbal only when movement is the point of the shot

• Keep shutter speed sensible to avoid jitter

• Walk smoothly — stabilisation isn’t magic (yet)

This keeps filming fast, flexible, and sane.

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So… which should you use?

• Talking, teaching, explaining? In-camera stabilisation

• Walking shots, tours, reveals? Gimbal

• Small crew or solo filming? In-camera wins

• Planned cinematic shots? Gimbal earns its keep

The best stabiliser is still good shooting technique — everything else just helps.

 

A close look at the Canon EOS C50

There’s a quiet sweet-spot in Canon’s cinema line-up, and the C50 sits right in it. Not flashy. Not huge. But extremely capable — especially if you’re filming education, experiments, sailing, interviews, or anything where reliability matters more than bragging rights.

Having spent years juggling DSLRs, mirrorless bodies, and workarounds in labs and small studios, the C50 feels like Canon saying: “Here — just get on with filming.”

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🎥 What the Canon C50 gets right

Super 35 sensor (with cinema DNA)
The C50 uses a Super 35 sensor rather than full-frame. For many real-world shoots, that’s actually a win:

• Easier depth of field control (less accidental blur)

• Lenses behave more predictably

• Better match to classic EF glass many of us already own

Dual Pixel Autofocus that actually behaves
Canon’s Dual Pixel AF remains the gold standard for:

• Talking-head teaching videos

• Demonstrations at a bench

• Filming on boats where everything moves except the subject you want

Face tracking, eye AF, smooth transitions — all without hunting.

Internal 4K 10-bit recording
This is where the C50 quietly punches above its size:

• 10-bit colour internally

• Canon Log 2 / Log 3

• Excellent highlight roll-off

For science experiments, white lab benches, sails against bright skies, or shiny apparatus — that extra colour depth really matters.

Built-in ND filters
If you’ve ever filmed outdoors and thought “why is everything suddenly overexposed?” — you’ll appreciate this instantly.
Smooth, physical ND filters = faster shooting, fewer compromises.

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🔊 Audio & handling: built for grown-up filming

• Proper XLR inputs (no dongles dangling off the side)

• Solid top handle

• Real buttons you can find without looking

• Excellent battery life

This is a camera designed for working — not for menu diving.

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⚖️ What it doesn’t try to be

The C50 isn’t chasing specs for YouTube thumbnails:

• No 8K

• No internal RAW

• No “look at me” design

Instead, it’s stable, predictable, and produces footage that grades beautifully without drama.

For education, sailing videos, documentaries, and small-crew productions — that’s exactly what you want.

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🎯 Who the Canon C50 is really for

• Teachers filming experiments or lessons

• Solo creators who need autofocus they can trust

• Small studios upgrading from DSLRs

• Anyone fed up with overheating, rigging, or fragile mirrorless setups

If your work values clarity, consistency, and colour accuracy, the C50 makes a lot of sense.

 

Fixing a Laptop with Software Problems

When Reformatting the Hard Disk Is (Sadly) the Right Answer

There comes a point in the life of every laptop where something just isn’t right.

It’s slow.
Updates fail.
Programs crash for no obvious reason.
Strange error messages appear… then disappear again.

You can try patching it up:

• uninstalling and reinstalling software

• running repair tools

• cleaning startup programs

• scanning for malware

Sometimes that works.
And sometimes… it really doesn’t.

That’s when reformatting the hard disk and starting again becomes the most sensible option.

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Why software problems creep in

Modern operating systems are remarkably resilient, but over years of use they accumulate baggage:

• half-removed programs

• corrupted updates

• conflicting drivers

• old background services nobody remembers installing

For students’ laptops in particular, I often see:

• multiple versions of the same software

• failed exam-board installs

• half-working antivirus tools fighting each other

Eventually, performance and reliability suffer.

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Reformatting: the nuclear option (but not a reckless one)

Reformatting the drive wipes everything and installs a clean operating system.

That sounds drastic — but done properly, it’s often:

• faster than endless troubleshooting

• more reliable than piecemeal fixes

• better for learning, because the machine behaves predictably again

The key is preparation.

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Step 1: Back up everything

Before touching the disk:

• documents

• coursework

• photos

• browser bookmarks

• licence keys

If it isn’t backed up, assume it’s gone.

I always recommend two copies:
one external drive, one cloud-based.

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Step 2: Reinstall the operating system

A fresh install:

• removes hidden corruption

• resets drivers

• clears startup clutter

Windows, macOS, and Linux all handle this well now — provided you start from official recovery tools or installation media.

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Step 3: Reinstall only what you actually need

This is where many people go wrong.

Don’t reinstall everything you ever used.
Install:

• essential software

• exam or course-specific tools

• one browser (at first!)

The result is a noticeably faster, calmer system.

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Step 4: Restore files — selectively

Bring back documents and projects, but avoid copying old system folders wholesale.
This prevents reintroducing the very problems you’ve just removed.

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The result

A laptop that:

• boots quickly

• behaves predictably

• doesn’t fight the user at every click

For students, that means less tech stress and more focus on learning.
For anyone else, it means the machine feels new again — without buying new hardware.

Sometimes, starting over really is the cleanest fix.