Snow Day(s)...

It's kind of ironic I'm sitting on my couch in shorts and a t-shirt with the windows open and a fan on writing this. I guess that just shows how far behind I am on posting to my blog. I've said it plenty of times, I HATE snow. Luckily, usually when it snows in Abilene it's an inch, maybe two, and it's gone the next day. Well, this recent snowstorm we got it seemed like it would never go away. And, unlike when it snows up north and a couple hours later the plows get out and by the afternoon it's gone. Here, it cripples the city and Outside of the one or two plows operated by the Texas DOT, the only thing to get rid of the ice on the roads is the sun. So, when the sun stays away for three days and the temperatures don't go above the low 20's I get to spend the majority of my time shooting weather photos.

On Monday night it started out raining... by about 2am it was snowing, hard. By the time I woke up the next morning there was 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and all the rain from the night before was a solid sheet of ice on all the roads. For a three day period I was not able to even get my car out of the driveway. Luckily my lovely wife allowed me to chauffeur her around in her 4-wheel drive Jeep.

So, my days pretty much every one of those days consisted of diving around chasing snow plows, creeping around the city behind people that shouldn't be driving car that they didn't know how to drive on ice and were ill equipped for driving, and looking for people having fun and generally acting foolish. Luckily by Friday, the sun came out and the sun began thawing out the roads, and by Saturday there were no problems. Overall, I was happy with what I got, but I'm glad it's gone and I've got shorts on now!

Heating Up...

Summer in West Texas is hotter than hell. The lack of humidity is nice but when you're standing in the sun hot is hot. And, when you're wearing football pads it's gotta be just downright miserable. This was the first day of practice for one of the local high school all-star football games. I was out there shooting the practice for a couple stories for the sports section, but we were also in need of weather photos. And, since most people with any brains hide indoors when the temperature is over 100, I took advantage of the players getting cooled down during a water break.

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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Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

I'm not a big fan of snow, it was cool when I was a little kid and it got me out of school, but now it's more of a nuisance than anything else. I'm not really a fan of cold weather as a whole. Ideally around 60 degrees is about perfect. So, when it's 30, snowing and the wind is blowing at 10-15mph that last thing I wanna do is be outside, I'd rather be huddled up on my couch with the dogs trying to stay warm. But, that just ain't gonna happen working for a newspaper. So, you make the best of the situation.

Christmas Eve morning it snowed, hard. In fact it was the first time the weather service in this area had ever put out a blizzard warning. So, at 9am I got a call to go shoot weather photos, at least I'd be getting off early on Christmas Eve. So, I set out looking for people playing in the snow, as well as people stuck in it. The funny thing is, it was so cold and the wind was blowing so hard there really wasn't a whole lot of people out in it like in the past. However, after looking for a while I did find a few brave souls willing to brave the snow.

Summer Time...

It's hot, really really damn hot! The temperatures all week have been hovering around 100 degrees and the forecast for the whole week was pretty much the same... hotter than hell. Wednesday, I was looking for a weather feature. So, I went to one of the local swimming pools after having spent most of the afternoon looking for something other than a pool shot. Pretty much everyone was home, or otherwise inside hiding from the sun, I can't say that I blame them, I'd probably have been doing the same thing if I weren't working! But, I was. So I ended up at the swimming pool. This is pretty much a last resort type thing, in an effort to not shoot pool photos for every weather feature we try to limit the amount we shoot. So, when I do shoot at the pool, I make damn sure it's something I like. When I got there I made sure to get a safe shot, something of some kids splashing in the pool, in case I had to go home with my tail between my legs, after all I can't go back with nothing. It seems like when you show up at a pool with a camera, everyone wants to show off, then again, most of these kids were showing off before I got there, I think it's a teenager thing. After finding the right place I wanted to shoot from it was just a matter of sitting under the diving board and waiting for the right person to come into my shot. I spent a few more minutes looking for something better, but didn't find it. This was the shot I wanted, and it just took sweating off a few pounds and getting splashed a couple times (I didn't complain a bit about it, it actually felt good!). I'm just glad I fixed the air conditioning in my car a couple weeks ago.