Weathering the Storm...

Last Friday was my first day back after a week and a half of vacation. My assignments were to shoot a portrait of a city council candidate for an election preview then McMurry University's Spring football practice and after that to Breckenridge to shoot softball. It started raining while I was in the middle of the portrait, that was ok because it wasn't coming down hard and we were under a tree. By the time I got to McMurry it was pouring! The practice was going on like normal which at least that was good, there was no thunder or lightning, just rain so I shot the assignment. I had to shoot both a practice shot and get a shot for a feature about one of the assistant coaches. It was easy enough, and although I was drenched in the 20 minutes I was out there I was at least able to get out of the rain.

So, when I got back to the office I was sure the softball game was going to be rained out. Breckenridge is about 65 miles northeast of here, but the storms were headed that way. I checked with the reporter and the game was still on. He called the coach and she said they were going to play, but if something changed she would call his cell phone to let him know. So, as we were driving up there through the pouring rain we were sure the call would come any minute that the game was called off... it never happened.

We got there and they were playing, in the rain. And it was coming down! So much so I grabbed a towel and my waterproof windbreaker. I threw the towel over my 300mm lens so it wouldn't get totally water logged. The game was awful, it was so sloppy out there the pitcher could barely even hold on to the ball! I ended up grabbing a quick shot of the people in the stands huddled under their umbrellas, in case a weather feature was needed. Good thing I did. Because after the end of the inning they called the game. The field was just too sloppy. So, we drove an hour each way to shoot 20 minutes of a softball game that was never even a game! I'm just glad I had a photo to turn in since we still ran a story about all the games that day that were postponed.
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