I had about an hour of daylight when I got out of work last night and I wanted to go photograph. The wind was blowing, it was 8 degrees and some snow was falling. I planned to drive around Crystal Lake-Benzie County MI, and seek photo opportunities. The weather conditions worsened as I drove towards the lake so I chose to just drive a bit along the south shore only. I took photos from my car, to avoid the frigid cold, and enjoyed some of the starkness I saw. I especially enjoyed the symbols of summer, covered in snow.

This female Northern Flicker has been hanging around my yard for a few weeks. I literally had to wake it up to get a photo with its eyes open. On the coldest days, it spends a lot of time sunning on the South side of trees blocking the NW wind. Northern Flickers use a drumming technique to attract a mate. Unfortunately for many people, they often practice on the metal flues of fireplaces.
The yellow-shafted subspecies is the state bird of Alabama.
A group of flickers is collectively known as a "guttering", "menorah", and "Peterson" of flickers, and as always thank you!!!

What tools, processes and tricks do you use to protect your best gear in nasty environments?

Background for question:
I recently took the Fam to Dominican Republic and we all went dirt buggying in the rainforest. I wanted some high end shots and with the variable light from being under the canopy to the beach, I brought 2 pieces of my gear that I could afford to lose (ie I dont ues them for paid work). My Canon70D and the Sigma 50mm1.4Art.

I protected the kit in 2 levels of plastic bags and took the kit out for pics during stops. It rained quite a bit during the photo ops so putting the kit back in the bag was like locking the fox in the chickenhouse.

In the end, I had dirt and moisture in the bag, LCD and top buttons on the 70D quit working (still able to take photos). All features returned to functioning again except cant download from the camera (use SD card reader so no issue).....and I am still digging dirt out of my ears. The excursion was a little like swimming through a mud puddle.

Attached is one of the photos.

Comments related to "tech", "process to protect" and any tricks/tips would be appreciated....

I just finished a wedding consultation.

I’m very nervous about the way it went down. I’ve never had to refuse to photograph a wedding before. But I have had one that I wish I had backed out of and now my intuition is telling me to back out of this one. So far I have not signed an agreement.

The bride was very negative, she didn’t smile much and felt like some of my work was out of focus. But the groom disagreed with her and was very personable and had looked at my portfolio in depth and liked what he saw.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. What’s the best way to tell them that it’s not a good fit? I’ve never done that before in all my years as a wedding photographer.

I went to Tanzania in 2017 and I'm getting a few photos ready to show friends. Thought I'd share a few...below is a description of this incredible area.

Ngorongoro Crater, extinct volcanic caldera in the Eastern (Great) Rift Valley, northern Tanzania. It lies 75 miles (120 km) west of the town of Arusha. The caldera measures between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) across and has an area of 102 square miles (264 square km). Its heavily forested rim rises 2,000 feet (610 metres) above the caldera’s floor to an elevation of 7,500 feet (2,286 metres). Ngorongoro is thought to have formed about 2.5 million years ago from a large active volcano whose cone collapsed inward after a major eruption, leaving the present vast, unbroken caldera as its chief remnant.