Shooting in the Rain

I shot the Northside-Houston County football game last Friday night. The rains came. I have not been that wet in a long time. I had checked the doppler during the afternoon, so I knew I would get wet. Just a question of how wet I would be.

I stuck a poncho in my camera bag because I knew I would need it. First quarter you could see the rain coming. I always really dread the rain coming during a game, but after it starts just go ahead and do my thing. I worry more about keeping my gear dry than me. Long as it is not freezing cold I can get by.

Todays cameras and lenses are pretty rain resistant, but try to keep them dry as possible. In the old days the bad part about shooting in the rain was changing film. You had to keep the inside of the camera and the film dry. Had to find a way to dry your hands, not an easy thing. With digital, our memory cards are big enough we can just keep shooting.

You can get raincoats to fit your camera with a 300 or 400f2.8 lens now. They work
really well. Any kind of plastic will do. I have seen folks wrap their camera completely in cling wrap. Not just for leftovers. Just have to keep the front of your lens dry. I keep some small ziplock bags and rubber bands to
waterproof my flashes. Pull them down over the flash, use a rubber band to keep the bag tight against the flash's
head, and another around the bottom spreading the bag over the top of the camera.

A quick toweling dried my cameras when I got to my car when I left he game. Three hours later I was still wet when I got home. The pictures made it worthwhile. Such is life.