Protecting My Camera From Rain and Powder, Preparing for the Chicago Color Run

A few days ago, I got permission to attend the upcoming Chicago Color Run. I’m not planning on running the race, and instead am going to take photographs of the event.

I’m hoping to do a similar documentation thing at this race, like what I did at the Illinois Warrior Dash – grabbing some shots of a pretty cool event.

The thing is – part of the whole premise of the race involves volunteers throwing colored powder at the runners, with a different color at each checkpoint. I believe the powder is really some kind of corn starch… but from the looks of the videos I’ve seen, it’s a pretty fine looking, dusty powder. Add in rainy weather, and it’s not looking that good for camera equipment.

Originally, I was going to try to wrap my camera in reams of plastic wrap, like a mummy. But then I was advised to try out the ziplock bag approach – which is what I did.

I used this tutorial as my guide. One thing I’ll say off the bat – I had to do this about three times, because I don’t like reading instructions (even short ones). I kept cutting the holes too big, and should have followed the instructions of cutting a smaller hole… and then using the plastic as a seal between filters.

Here’s what I worked with. I ended up buying a basic filter, and a genric rubber hood.

After a bit of trial and error, I got things to work out. Funny story: at one point, I took off the hood and was setting it down on the bag to outline the circle again. I didn’t realize that in taking off the hood, I had actually pulled off the filter along with it. When I put my marker to draw a circle on the ziplock bag, I ended up drawing a circle on the filter itself.

Like a boss.

Thankfully, I was able to get the marker off… but geez, did I feel like an idiot.

This was my third attempt, which ended up working out pretty well. I made a smaller/tighter hole, and got the plastic situated between the filter and the hood. I also wrapped the outside with a bit of duct tape, just to help seal things up even more.

And here’s the wrapped camera, in all its glory. Not pretty, and it’s a real pain to even adjust the lens… but hopefully this’ll do the trick.

For a taste of what tomorrow will be like, here’s a promo video for the Color Run:

Funny thing – I’ve been running a lot lately, doing the Couch to 5K program. And the first 5K I attend? I’m not running, I’m taking photographs. Hopefully all that running will help get me to multiple checkpoints, before all the runners get there.

Should be an interesting day tomorrow. Looks like there will be thunderstorms in the early morning, and rain throughout the day. Good thing I also bought a poncho today as well.

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