How to Protect Your Gear When Photographing on and In the Water

Camera equipment and water are fundamentally incompatible at a physical level that no amount of weather sealing fully overcomes. The difference between splashing a weather-sealed camera body and plunging an unhoused camera into a mountain lake is a difference of degree rather than kind. Both can cause damage. Both require specific protection approaches that go beyond assuming the camera's weather rating will handle whatever the production throws at it.

Five days of intensive water-based production on the Oru Kayak Lake campaign tested every piece of gear's protection system under real-world conditions. Here is what that protection looked like and what it took to keep everything functional throughout: Oru Kayak Lake Campaign.

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Understanding Weather Sealing vs. Waterproofing

Weather sealing and waterproofing are not the same thing and conflating them is one of the most common gear-protection mistakes in outdoor water photography. Weather sealing, the protection rating applied to most professional camera bodies and lenses, means the camera body has been constructed with gaskets and seals that resist the ingress of moisture from light rain, splash, and humidity at a level that allows continued operation in those conditions. It does not mean the camera can be submerged. It does not mean it can be dropped into a lake. It does not mean that sustained spray or heavy rain will not eventually overcome the sealing and cause damage.

Waterproofing, as applied to a properly maintained water housing, means the camera system enclosed within it can be fully submerged to specified depths without water ingress. The difference between those two protection levels is the difference between being able to shoot in rain and being able to swim with the camera. Understanding exactly what protection level your equipment provides, not what you hope it provides or what the marketing suggests, is the foundation of effective gear protection planning for water-based productions.

The practical implication is that weather-sealed cameras are appropriate for the production situations where they might encounter spray, splash, or light rain but where they will not be submerged or subjected to sustained heavy water exposure. Those situations represent a significant portion of outdoor water production work. The boat-to-boat work, the shore-based work in spray conditions, the work in light rain, all of those are appropriate contexts for weather-sealed cameras. Any work that requires the camera to be at or below the waterline requires a water housing regardless of the camera's weather sealing rating.

The Water Housing as Primary Protection

The water housing system is the most important piece of gear protection on a water-based production because it is the only protection that allows the camera to operate in the most visually distinctive and most physically demanding situations that water photography requires. The O-ring seals that form the primary water barrier in a water housing require specific maintenance protocols to remain reliable and those protocols are non-negotiable rather than optional professional habits.

Before every production session involving submersion, the O-rings were inspected for any sign of damage, deformation, or contamination. They were cleaned with a lint-free cloth to remove any debris that might prevent a complete seal. They were lubricated with appropriate silicone grease to maintain the flexibility that ensures complete contact with the housing's sealing surfaces. The housing was assembled with all ports and controls secured to their specified torque rather than finger-tight. And the assembled housing was tested in clean fresh water before any production material was captured, with a visual inspection of the housing interior after the test submersion to confirm no moisture had entered.

That protocol took approximately fifteen minutes and it was performed before every submersion session without exception. Equipment failure prevention through consistent maintenance is not glamorous but it is the professional standard that prevents the catastrophic scenario of discovering the O-ring failed after the housing has been submerged with a five-thousand-dollar camera body inside it. The fifteen minutes of maintenance time is the investment that makes the visual possibilities of water housing work available on every production day rather than only on the days when no seal failure has occurred.

Protecting Non-Housed Equipment Near Water

The majority of camera equipment on a water-based production is not housed and operates in the proximity of water rather than in direct contact with it. That proximity still requires systematic protection planning because the spray, humidity, and casual contact with water-soaked equipment that characterizes working near water is sufficient to cause damage to unprotected electronics over the course of a multi-day production.

Dry bags and waterproof cases are the primary protection for non-housed equipment near water. Camera bags with adequate water resistance, specifically tested for immersion rather than rated for rain only, provide transport protection. Individual equipment pieces in dry bags within the camera bag provide an additional protection layer for the moments when a bag is set down on a wet kayak deck or splashed by a paddle stroke. The redundancy of multiple protection layers is the approach for equipment that cannot afford to fail because the production depends on it.

The drone system on the Oru Kayak campaign required specific water proximity management because drone electronics are significantly less tolerant of moisture exposure than camera bodies and lenses with weather sealing. The drone was launched and recovered from dry surfaces rather than from the water or from wet surfaces adjacent to the water. Its case was kept closed and away from the water during all production time that did not involve active drone use. And the drone was not flown in conditions where precipitation or spray could contact the rotors or the electronics, which in an outdoor water environment requires ongoing assessment rather than a single pre-production decision.

Card and Battery Management in Wet Conditions

Memory cards and batteries are the consumable components of a camera system that require specific protection in wet conditions because both are vulnerable to the moisture and contamination that wet environments introduce. Memory card slots on camera bodies that are not enclosed in a water housing are water ingress points when the camera is used in spray conditions, and contaminated memory card contacts are a common cause of read and write failures that can result in lost footage.

The practical protection for cards in wet production conditions is to perform card changes only in dry conditions, specifically inside a vehicle or under cover rather than at the water's edge. Wet hands on card contacts introduce moisture and contamination that accumulates over a production day to cause failures that do not always present immediately but that corrupt footage or prevent writing at unpredictable later points. Developing the discipline to always change cards in dry conditions regardless of the convenience cost is one of the professional habits that prevents data loss in field conditions.

Battery management in wet and cold conditions addresses the specific vulnerability of lithium batteries to performance degradation in cold temperatures. Cold mountain water conditions on the Oru Kayak campaign produced battery discharge rates that were significantly faster than the same batteries would produce at moderate temperatures. Managing that cold-temperature performance reduction requires carrying more batteries than a moderate-temperature production would require, keeping spare batteries warm in inside pockets rather than in camera bags exposed to ambient cold, and monitoring battery charge levels more actively than in conditions where battery performance is predictable.

End-of-Day Equipment Care on Multi-Day Water Productions

The equipment care at the end of each production day on a multi-day water production is as important as the protection deployed during the production itself. Saltwater residue, mineral deposits from fresh water, and the physical residue of sunscreen and other personal care products that transfer from hands to equipment over a long production day all contribute to long-term equipment degradation if not addressed between production days.

The end-of-day care protocol on the Oru Kayak campaign included a visual inspection of all camera equipment for visible water contamination, cleaning of camera bodies and lenses with appropriate lens cloths and cleaning solutions where needed, and inspection of the water housing including disassembly of ports and inspection of O-ring sealing surfaces. Any moisture found inside the housing triggered a complete disassembly and drying before the next day's submersion use. Any contamination found on O-ring surfaces triggered a full O-ring inspection and replacement if any deformation or damage was found.

That end-of-day care routine added approximately thirty minutes to the production day's close-down procedure and it is the investment that makes five consecutive days of intensive water-based production possible without equipment failures that compromise deliverables. The alternative, performing end-of-day care only when equipment shows visible signs of a problem, produces the scenario where a developing failure is not addressed until after it has affected production quality or caused data loss. Preventive maintenance before the problem is visible is the professional standard for equipment that the production cannot afford to lose.

Insurance and Risk Management for Water Productions

Equipment protection in water environments extends beyond the physical protection protocols applied during and after each production session to the financial and operational risk management that professional equipment insurance provides. Camera equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars operating in water environments faces risks that no amount of careful handling and maintenance can fully eliminate. Equipment insurance that specifically covers water damage, accidental submersion, and the physical risks inherent in outdoor water production is not optional professional practice. It is the financial protection that makes it possible to work in demanding water environments without the existential risk of an uninsured equipment loss ending a production or a business.

Verifying that existing equipment insurance policies cover water damage specifically rather than assuming general equipment insurance extends to intentional water submersion is essential before any water housing work begins. Many general equipment policies exclude water damage or limit coverage to accidental water exposure rather than intentional submersion. Understanding exactly what your policy covers and what it excludes, and modifying coverage where necessary before the production rather than discovering gaps in coverage after an incident, is the professional standard for risk management in water-based production work.

The physical safety risks of in-water production work extend beyond equipment to personnel. In-water photography in cold mountain water in early fall conditions introduces real physical risk to the photographer that requires the same professional assessment and management that equipment risk receives. Appropriate thermal protection, a water safety monitor, a conservative exit protocol, and honest pre-production assessment of the conditions against the physical demands of the planned in-water work are the professional standards for personnel safety management in water-based production contexts. Equipment can be replaced. The consequences of physical incapacitation in cold water without adequate safety protocols cannot be undone.

The Professional Standard Worth Building Toward

The photographers who work most effectively in demanding water environments are the ones who have built their gear protection practice to the point where equipment failure is rare rather than a predictable production risk. That standard is not achieved by being careful in the moment. It is achieved by building systematic protocols that make careful practice automatic rather than effortful. The O-ring inspection, the pre-submersion test, the dry-conditions card change, the end-of-day care routine, all of those practices exist as deliberate professional standards that protect against the predictable failure modes of water-based production work.

Building those standards before they are tested by a high-stakes production is the investment that makes water-based campaign work reliable rather than anxiety-producing. The photographer who has spent years maintaining those standards arrives at a campaign like the Oru Kayak production with a gear protection practice that runs automatically rather than competing for attention with the creative and logistical demands of the production. That automaticity is the return on the investment of building the practice before it is needed at a moment when equipment failure would have real consequences for the production and the client relationship that depends on it.

Book a discovery call to talk about what a fully protected water campaign production could look like for your brand: https://dalton-johnson.com.

1. What is your current O-ring maintenance protocol before water housing submersion and does it include a post-submersion visual inspection of the housing interior to verify no moisture has entered?
2. How do you currently protect non-housed equipment in wet production environments and does your protection approach include multiple layers that account for the cumulative moisture exposure of a multi-day production?
3. What is your current protocol for memory card changes in wet field conditions and does it require a dry environment or do you change cards at the water's edge when convenient?
4. What end-of-day equipment care routine do you perform after water-based production days and is that routine sufficient to prevent the cumulative equipment degradation that intensive water proximity produces over multiple consecutive production days?

Dalton Johnson is a professional adventure photographer, filmmaker, and director with over a decade of experience creating campaigns on all seven continents. His client work includes Patagonia, GoPro, Arc'teryx, Four Seasons, Nike, Rivian, Big Agnes, Ford Bronco, and 160+ other brands. He runs Dalton Johnson Media as a full-service studio, from pre-production through post and distribution.