Ocean Photography

[inkista]

My basic precaution is mostly against sand and to do with my hands--I pretty much take care to only touch my camera (i.e., no climbing rocks using your hands). Once you get sand/water on your hands, it's damn near impossible to keep it from getting onto your equipment, but you can rinse off your hands with bottled water, and dry them with a towel. You may also want to limit lens changes to "off the sand" areas or inside your bag for the same reason. If you hear something "crunch" when you spin a ring on a lens, stop and get off the beach, and see if you can get the sand back out with a blower. These days, I tend to use my 24-105L, which is weather-sealed, when I'm at the beach, and I tend to stick with a single lens. I tend to be slightly more paranoid than the average about my gear.

I don't know how much that cautionary tale's going to apply to you in Washington, though. Most of the beaches there are more of the rocky or muddy variety than sandy from what my sister used to tell me.

For sea water, I've just taken care not to get stuff wet, or to be where the spray can get me. I always shoot with a UV filter, so I generally don't worry too much about the lens--it's the camera body I tend to shield with my body from the spray (the water tends to come from only one direction ). I also always carry a microfiber cloth (you can get 'em in the car detailing section of Target--a very large bundle for not much money) in the bag, so I can wipe off the camera if it gets sprayed. When I get home, I make sure to wipe off with a damp cloth and then dry the camera again so there's no salt left on the camera. If you're nervous about it, I suppose you could do the ziploc baggie/rain cover trick: cut a hole in the bag slightly smaller than the filter size of the lens, and then secure the bag over the camera by screwing a filter on to hold the bag in place. I've never gone that far, though.