Salt Spray
 

I have just returned from lecturing on still digital photography (very basic) on a cruise to Bermuda. During my free time I stood on the bow looking for petrels, shearwaters and other assorted pelagic birds. I am now working toward a similar gig that will go around the horn from Santiago to Buenos Aires and back--four weeks. What I would like to do here is to video the pelagic birds to develop a identification video to share with other birders--quality not quite Discovery channel. What concerns me is the salt spray, which even on a calm day produces a fine mist, which over several hours creeps into everything. The binoculars and the spotting scope lenses (yes the ships are big enough so a scope on a tripod works well) gradually became covered with encrusting salt. Should the weather be rough, this mist would get even worse. I am not talking of actual spray, say from riding in a Zodiac, but the the pervasive salted moisture that comes off the water with the wind. Any ideas would be appreciated.

On another twist on this theme. Is there a way of estimating the wingspan (size) by having some sort of range estimating reticle captured on the video? The bird species are very similar sometimes and are largely identified by size.

Cheers,
Richard Tkachuck

Try ewa-marine

B&H Photo sell their products.

Salt Spray
 

Thanks--looks like this will do it.
Richard

Hi, i don't know if this sounds too obvious or not, but I used to spend hours shooting extreme sports on windy beaches, and quickly found that it could really be a problem. The solution I came accross was really trying to minimize the amount of time the lens was directly facing into the wind. Ok it means you have to be quick with your timing and get into different positions for the shots you want, but by doing this,and by always thinking about it, i could almost totally avoid any buildup. Hope that helps!