Digital SLR camera settings for windy conditions

Close to where I live is a local botanical garden, always full of colorful flowers in full bloom. As you can imagine, it's a wonderful place for flower photographers to spend the day.

I was recently chatting to a nature photographer there who happened to be cursing the windy conditions. I noticed his camera was sitting on a tripod and he seemed to be trying to block the wind out with his body, waiting for what seemed like forever for the wind to calm down a little so he could take his shot. Seeing his frustration, I asked him what camera settings he was using. 'Manual of course' he remarked. It had never occured to him that there were numerous camera settings available to help out in specific circumstances.

For example, in windy conditions you need your digital SLR camera to take the photograph as quickly as possible. Or in other words, shoot instantly as if snap frozen. Therefore, it's sufficient to suggest that in windy conditions, shutter priority is the best digital camera setting to use for flower photography.

What are the best digital SLR camera settings for windy conditions?

• The most important aspect for windy weather is to take the shot as quickly as possible. Therefore start by setting your SLR camera on Shutter priority.
  
  
• Next you need to set it on a fast shutter speed. I recommend trying 1/250th of a second, then go faster from there if needed.
  
  

Yellow flowers in windy conditions

Digital SLR Camera: Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi
DSLR Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Exposure: 1/250th of a second
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Program: shutter priority

Why this image worked

The weather conditions on this particular day was very windy. Therefore I put my digital SLR camera on shutter priority with a fast 1/250 speed. Furthermore, I took advantage of continuous mode, so I could take as many photographs as possible within each second time frame. As it turned out, this resulted in quite a few sharp images of flowers for me to choose from.