Football in a Monsoon...

Last week between Thursday and Sunday morning the Abilene area received a little over seven inches of rain. I'll add, that this rain was badly needed for the area lakes and agriculture. I just wish that it didn't have to happen on Friday night during football, as well as a few other really cool events that ended up getting cancelled in the process. But, it did and there's nothing I can do about it now.

So, the game I was covering was Cisco at Stamford. Now, when I'm covering games in the rain like this my number one priority is keeping my gear safe. Over the years, I've found the perfect set up for this is gaffers taping an umbrella to my monopod so, as long as the rain isn't coming down sideways on me the camera and lens stay well protected the whole game. My second camera I will usually put around my neck or on the front of my body to keep as dry as possible (that works ok, but not the best way). My camera bag (a Think Tank beltpack) is the easiest of all since Think Tank makes awesome equipment, the rain covers are built into the gear, I just pull out the covers and put them on and everything there is protected.

With all that done it was time to cover the game. And what a great game it turned out to be. The weather I'm sure played a lot into it staying so close and dictated keeping the ball on the ground. I figured this was going to play into Cisco's advantage, but somehow Stamford managed just enough passes to make things work out. Then, late in the first half, Stamford's all-state quarterback ended up hurting his throwing hand and the backup had to take over. I was afraid this game could get ugly real quick, however, after a little growing pains on the first two drives he settled in and brought the Bulldogs back and ended up throwing the game-winning touchdown pass, late in the fourth quarter. Cisco had a chance to drive down the field to win it, but the soggy weather and a couple nice plays by the Stamford defense sealed the game in a close one. Despite the nasty weather and me feeling like I'd just taken a shower when I finally got to my car to edit photos, it was a great game to watch.

Praying For Rain...

Last week I headed up to Stanford for a pray for rain gathering put together by a group of churches up in Stanford. Now, it's been a few months since we have had any significant rain in the area. So, having a prayer circle to ask for rain may not have been such a bad idea. The event was happening at 8pm, so the good thing about it was there was going to be some nice light to be had. The bad part about it was the nice light wasn't going to last too long. I found a nice shot that I liked of a couple of people holding hands during the prayer and spent a little bit working it so the sun was coming between the people and the hand silhouetted against the sky. After a little bit I got a shot I was happy with, then I moved along and saw the couple holding the rosary beads. Damn, at this point I didn't have a whole lot of sun light left after spending so much time working the other shot. Quickly I tried to reframe the shot to what I had before with the cross hanging down against the sky. Luckily after a little rotation of the frame I ended up with the shot I wanted. After that it was just a matter of getting a couple secondary shots to go with it.

Rainy Day Abilene...

Last year at this time a good chunk of the state was either in the midst of burning down or had already been scorched and there was absolutely no rain anywhere in sight, plus it was already hotter than hell. This year, we've been getting some nice rain. So much that the area has already gotten more rain in the first few months of the year than we had gotten all last year. Last Thursday was no different. There was a little bit of rain in the morning, but during the afternoon it poured. Getting nearly an inch of rain only meant one thing, the parade that was supposed to be on the front page got rained out and we needed to find a weather photo to replace it. I spent quite a while driving around looking for something and had a few really lame shots of cars driving through flooded intersections as safe shots. But nothing I was in love with. Finally, while I was driving by McMurry University I saw a bunch of people walking into Radford Auditorium in caps and gowns. I figured it was graduation practice. So, I spent about 20 minutes sitting in my car watching people trying to avoid the rain until I saw these two ladies huddling under one umbrella trying to stay dry. I was able to track them down, get names and find out it was a pinning ceremony for new nursing students. After that I was able to head back to the office happy (and soaked just from a 20 yard run from my car to the building).

Rainy Day Baseball Again...

Last year I can't remember one weekend that any of my assignments got rained out. Hell, I can barely remember many days that we got any rain last year. This year, for the second week in a row the skies were filled with grey clouds. Last week, it was a full on rainy weekend and everything happening outdoors got cancelled. This week, there were clouds in the sky most of the week, but there was no rain, just a bunch of humidity. On Saturday it was drizzling as I was walking into the Cooper softball game. I ended up shooting the first half of the first inning and between innings there was a huge lightning bolt in the sky. By rule any time the teams are pulled off the field it the teams have to stay off the field for at least thirty minutes after the most recent lightning. So, I figured I'd go back to the office and put in the St. Patrick's Day parade pix I had shot in the morning.

I ended up going back to the field after about an hour and they had just gotten started again. I got there in time to shoot Cooper batting in their half of the second inning. There were hitting pretty decent and scored a few runs. Then the rain started coming down, not too hard but coming down. Then the rain starts getting a little harder, there was 2 outs in the inning so, my plan was to tough it out till the end of the inning, one more out and go shoot from one of the dugouts. Well, I guess the umpires were tired of the rain getting heavier and called the players off the field again. Well, that was it, I've been to this game twice and only gotten a grand total of five outs, I'm done here.

After that I went to shoot McMurry baseball and was hoping for a little better luck down the street. I got to the game and it looked like the players were warming up. Woohoo! I guess they were getting ready to play, finally I may get to shoot a get without it being stopped. I go in the press box and find out they were warming up, getting ready for the second game. As I'm walking out on the field it looking like the sun is peeking through the clouds, well, I guess one out of two ain't so bad. I made a few nice frames, but, I know I'm still a way away from having my baseball timing down, at least it's Spring, hopefully we'll have some nice days to shoot.

Blame it on the Rain...

Like I said in my last post, it only rains about once every forever around here. So when it said there was a 90% chance of rain for Abilene High's game against Mansfield Timberview I didn't think I'd get as lucky as I did the night before and just have a little drizzle going on. The weather for the game was really awful, it was pretty much a damn monsoon rolling through for three hours.

For the first quarter I shot from the mezzanine which had a nice overhang and I was able to stay dry. I had planned on shooting from up there anyway at some point, but figured I'd start out up there and hopefully the storm would pass. By the second quarter the rain had let up and I went down to the field. Well, that lasted about 15 minutes and then the sky just opened up and it poured. Needless to say it was totally miserable. By the end of the half despite wearing a raincoat I was pretty much soaked from head to toe.

From watching the game it felt like I wasn't the only one effected by the weather. It looked like Abilene High didn't know how to play football in the rain. The Eagles were pretty much getting dominated all day both on offense and defense. The Eagles were having trouble containing Timberview's option attack and both the quarterback and running back were having their way running the ball. And Abilene High's balanced offense which had been so potent all season was having trouble getting anything done. Passes were flying long and the offensive line couldn't contain the pass rush and were having a really hard time making holes to run through.

By the second half, both the game and the weather had both gotten out of hand. It's been about five or six years since I've seen an Abilene High team get dominated this bad. That coupled with the nasty weather it just made it an overall miserable day to shoot. About the only good thing was how quickly the game went by. With all the running in the second half it got the game over in just under three hours. About the only nice thing was as hard as the rain was coming down it did make for some nice photos and the pouring rain showed up really well in the photos.

Rainy Day Abilene...

Last Saturday was supposed to be a pretty easy day, two football games, starting an hour apart and then one other event and done. These "easy" days never seem to work out that way. As I was pulling into the parking lot at Hardin-Simmons rain started pouring down, then the thunder and lightning came. I was hoping this would be short and the big rains would come in later at night. Too bad the weatherman was wrong, again.

I sat in the press box for a little over an hour waiting to see if they were going to play the game. I grabbed a shot while I was there. After getting word the game was going to be delayed at least a few hours I figured it was time to go look for weather photos. As hard as the rain was coming down and with all the lightning in the area, it was a pretty futile trip. Everyone was indoors and rightly so, sadly this didn't make for great photos.

By the time I got back to the office, I was told the football games that were supposed to be 1pm kickoffs would finally start at 7pm. When I got to Hardin-Simmons the rain was still coming down steadily and I was standing in about an inch of water on the sidelines. The game was sloppy and the real grass field didn't suck in the water nearly as well as it did across town at McMurry who has FieldTurf. I gotta say though, Hardin-Simmons was a lot more fun to shoot in that night! With all the water on the field the players were sloshing around and sliding all over the place. It wasn't real pretty to watch but made for some nice photos. The field goal shot pretty much summed up the day. I never thought I'd have a photo of a plain old 27-yard field goal make the front page of the newspaper, but when you get 3.5 inches of rain during the day, things seem to change.

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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