Dealing With Problems at State...

Dealing with adversity and problem solving is a big part of my job. A lot of it is dealing with people and logistics of a situation. And often, it's dealing with my own idiocy, such as forgetting things and time management. So, when I was heading down to shoot Wylie playing in the state tournament in Austin, I probably should have left about an hour earlier, because I was walking into the arena only about 30 minutes before the start of the game. Now, any normal game this would haven't been fine, but for this it's a pain since I need to get set up in the media room then get out to the court and claim a spot, set up my remote etc. That's where the problems started.

Normally, I don't keep a battery in my D2x, which is what I use for my remote body, since I don't use it a whole lot. Now, if I had gotten there at least an hour before the game it wouldn't have been a big problem, just run to my car and grab the spare battery. So, I shot the game without a remote, no big deal. The bigger problem happened about towards the end of the third quarter. I had some nice stuff so I decided to mix it up a bit and shoot some wide photos, that would normally be what my remote did. As I'm shooting with my 17-35mm lens I'm trying to zoom in with the lens and the ring was spinning, but no zoom. Great, so here I am 250 miles away from Abilene, and a lens that won't zoom. Needless to say, I had no wide stuff.

The game wasn't great, Wylie won it pretty easily. I got a few decent shots that I was happy with. And, given that there was going to be another game to shoot, I'd hopefully be able to redeem things in the championship game, after all, that's the one that matters anyway. Wylie made it this far last year, so this was nothing new for them.