Avoid the mud

When rain starts falling in a field full of 120,000 people you can be sure of one thing: it's going to get muddy. Bad muddy. We watched people slipping around the Glastonbury site like fat, wet bowling pins. It's sad to watch amateur photographers take a tumble into half a metre of muddy water and destroy their equipment.

Taking a camera to any music festival is always a risk, but you can minimise that risk by taking some simple steps. First, if it starts raining and you still want to take photographs, wrap a carrier bag around your digital SLR and use a rubber band to hold the pleated opening of the bag around the lens. It'll take some practise to locate the shutter button when it's hidden in a bag, but you'll still get great shots without the risk of water damage to your camera body. You'd be surprised how many of the pro photographers from the newspapers covering Glastonbury were using bin liners to protect their photographic equipment.

Second, constantly be aware of your surroundings and make sure your footing is solid before you launch into a series of shots. It's easy to get caught in the moment and forget that you're standing in a camera-hating mudbath. To take this shot we had to stand knee deep in mud and water and keep a solid stance. If you concentrate on the subject of the shot and where you're standing, your SLR should live to tell the tale.