Deluged

Last night's Bentonville High School football game versus Fort Zumwalt, Mo., High School was hit with a heavy downpour during the first quarter that felt like Hurricane Ike had decided to skip its arrival in South Texas and head straight to Northwest Arkansas. In my 12 years of shooting football I've never had to work in rain like that. Of course I had checked the forecast before heading to the game and was prepared for wet weather. I had a rain parka stuffed in my cargo pants. My camera bag system has built in raincovers you can deploy in case of rain cover. I had a clear plastic bag taped over my camera body with a 70-200mm lens attached, which is the body that this frame was shot with. And, as luck would have it, we had just purchased Think Tank Hydrophobia raincoats for The Morning News' two 400mm f2.8 lenses, of which one I was using last night in Bentonville. Unlike most sports, football is one that is played in any weather condition unless lightning or extremely strong winds are involved. If you don't show up prepared for the kind of weather that hit last night you can surely miss a good shot.