As Hawai'i residents have coped with six weeks of wet and wild weather, news photographers have been at the scene of the worst of it — the dangerous and deadly flooding, the damaged homes, the pollution, and the wet and slick streets.

Shooting news photos means getting close to what is going on.

When weather is bad, it means not only getting close but also balancing safety, treacherous conditions and the desire to show readers what has happened and how people's lives have been affected.

"A key ingredient to making good weather pictures is getting the right content," says Advertiser photo editor Seth Jones. "A picture of brown water is just a picture of brown water. We need to capture the effect of all that rainy weather on people. Does it make a mess of their homes? Does it loosen boulders to crash into their homes? Does it stifle their drive to work or school? Does it wash away their homes in the middle of the night while they sleep?"

"Readers need to see the world around them and how it affects them," said Advertiser photographer Joaquin Siopack. "I want to show people what's going on in places where they cannot get to."

"The battle is to keep the cameras from getting too wet, otherwise they won't work and that means I cannot report the news," said Siopack. "I can't let that happen even though I get really close."

As he is getting close, Siopack looks for the photos that are "the moments of people in everyday life that slip away."

"To me, they are doing extraordinary things in otherwise ordinary times."

In the past few weeks, those "moments" as shown by Advertiser photographers have included a girl looking for her missing pet fish, boys sliding on a tarp in a flooded field, a woman opening the door to her refrigerator in a flooded kitchen, and people walking around water shooting up out of the sidewalk.

"We don't normally see things like that," said Siopack, "and we have an even rarer opportunity to photograph them."

Gathering all that means also balancing the practical concerns of staying safe and keeping camera equipment dry.

Most of us, if we can, try to avoid being out and about in bad weather. Photographers head straight into it.

That doesn't mean they don't think about their safety. They know the drill about being careful in driving through water, and what to avoid.

They learn to balance the camera equipment they must carry to lessen the chance of falling and they learn to be careful about what they wade into. They think about the water they must wade through up to their waists while feeling for potholes and uneven surfaces.

For example, Advertiser photographer Rebecca Breyer has tried to carry the least amount of camera gear on recent rain assignments so she can remain balanced in slippery areas. Lighting is tough in rainy weather, and Breyer will use a flash when necessary, but if there is some daylight, she tries to avoid it.

The fact is, despite all the rain gear they don, photographers know they are going to get wet, and to some degree their cameras will, too. Rain or shine they have to be there for the photo.

It's what they look for in the photo that makes the difference.

Reach Anne Harpham at aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com.