Forecast looks like raining. Should we cancel or postpone photoshoot?

You may be ask:
"— Should we cancel or postpone the photoshoot if it looks like raining?'"
The short answer is:
"— No".
However, I must go to some details here, since I'm getting asked it A LOT.

As a professional photographer, I always look at the weather forecast and compare it with the real situation. For the last 5 years (from 2014) that I live on Koh Samui, I tried about 10 different websites and over 15 applications. None of them helped much.

So, guys, please:

Do not trust any weather forecast on Koh Samui.
All of them are lying. It is absolutely unpredictable island.

It must be tough to predict the weather at a small piece of the land within the ocean.

What is the plan?

Usually, it is good to look at the real situation on the day of the shooting. In the case of a big chance of rain, we can start our shooting earlier. That gives us a chance to take a break if rain happens. And that’s everything that we can do.

Anyway, let’s change the date!

Ok, if you decided, let’s do it. Sure.

If you are still on the island for a while.
If I'm free on this date, then “why not!”

But here is one important moment.

When the date is booked, I do not take other orders for it.
Booking the date means rejecting other photo shoots on that date

If you reschedule the date, I'm booking for the second day, and then maybe the third, etc
So, in this case, I will need non-refundable deposit. If you didn’t pay it already. Usually it’s not big one. Just 10-20% from total amount.

Can photos be good enough without the sun?

Sunny and cloudy days usually imply two different moods and different approaches. Any weather has pros and cons. On a sunny day with a blue sky and harsh light, everything in the photos will be bright and contrast. The water has a nice color. But it will also be stupidly hot. And you won't be able to keep from squinting your eyes. However, it’s easy to get photos without sweat drops over the makeup, sweat stains on clothes, and keep your eyes open and wrinkles discreet on a cloudy day. Of course, the colors will be more soft and calm. But at the same time, it's more likely to get interesting pictures with dramatic sky.

Tropical surroundings, beaches, and ocean views have always been the main Ko Samui kicker. When it's cloudy or rainy, it still beautiful. There is one exception: prolonged heavy rains in November. Every year there will be a week or two when you definitely don't want to go out. You will know "This is it" when you see it.

How it will looks like?

Here is a few photo shootings what happened with fully cloudy time. Please, take a look and decide:

Cloudy or sunny? Conclusions:

Let's take all the advantages and disadvantages of different weather into a clear list/p>

• Sunny weather:

  Pros:
  • bright colors
  • blue sky
  • aqua water
  Cons:
  • heat
  • closed (squited) eyes
  • harsh shadows on faces
  • wet clothes (arm pits, sweat spots on shirts, dresses,)
  • "melted" makeup

• Cloudy weather:

  Pros:

  • comfortable temperature, fresh
  • soft light and nice shadows on faces
  • relaxed, natural face with open eyes
  • good condition of makeup
  • no sweat spots

  And there is only one con is the soft, calm tones of the background and the surrounding space. And to be honest, for me it does not even sound like a disadvantage, but just like an option.

A couple of situations from my experience.

Story #1. Let’s change the date for photo shooting, because of morning rain

It happened when I just arrived in Koh Samui. I’ve planned photo shooting at sunset time, but that morning it rained. Back then, I was inexperienced in Koh Samui weather's mood swings and looked at forecasts. I decided to postpone the shoot to the next day. You can imagine my surprise when the rain stops in the afternoon, and in the next hours, there was no single cloud in the sky left. Meanwhile, the weather forecasts still shown it was raining here the whole day. And what was the most annoying, on the next day (when we did a photoshoot) the weather was worse than on the day before.

Story #2. The difference in the weather on the other side

That day, I planned to explore some beaches on the other side of the island. It was about half a year of my stay on Koh Samui. I lived in the Chaweng area and wanted to check beaches at Lipa Noi and Taling Ngam areas. They are on the opposite side of the island. Accidentally, I left home without my wallet. After several hours of exploring, I felt thirsty. It was very hot, the sun was burning me, and there were only a few clouds. I coped with that somehow and went home closer to sunset time. I haven’t been in my neighborhood for about 5-6 hours. The roads there were wet, and I saw deep puddles everywhere. I was told that it was raining heavily here for hours. Simultaneously, as I said, on the other side of the island was exhausted from the hot sun and the lack of shade.

Story #3. Sunset after the rain

I have been on the island for more than two years and observed the situation with such weather changes many times. Therefore, in 90% of cases, I did not postpone photoshoots. That day was a rainy one. I went to pick up my clients. The rain didn’t stop on our way to the location. We waited 10-15 more minutes, and the rain stopped. After that, the whole shooting was very nice. The light from the clouds was soft, and we enjoyed the sunset.