The Rain Bowl

I woke up at 8:00 this morning, and by 8:02 I was down in my basement mopping water off the floor. We've had two straight days of rain and everywhere is flooding, including my basement. My back yard has several inches of standing water on it, with nowhere for it to go. I spent the whole morning bringing stuff up from the basement, and connecting a pump to help clear the water. Unfortunately, I also had a football game to shoot today....

Kickoff was at 1:00 but the rain became heavier at 12:30 and I decided not to shoot the game. The basement was filling with water again. Hoping it would be postponed, I tuned into the radio, only to hear the game in progress. By about 1:30 I had done all I could to stem the flow, so I wrapped the 300mm lens and camera in custom made rain gear (actually in Jewel grocery bags...) and headed out the door. In twenty-three years of shooting sports, I've never shot in such wet conditions. It was tough juggling the camera with an umbrella, with the rain sometimes coming at me sideways. One thing I've learned though, is that adverse conditions often create some of the best pictures. The field was saturated in many parts, with several inches of standing water especially along the sidelines. Tackles were great though, with water spraying out in all directions. I managed to keep the front element of the lens pretty dry, thanks mainly to the six inch deep lens hood. By the last few minutes of the fourth quarter, the rain stopped and I was able to shoot without the umbrella. In the end, Wheaton College beat the fourth ranked team in the nation. It wasn't pretty, but the pictures came out great.

When I returned home, I found my phone line was dead due to the rainstorm, so I had to edit the pictures here, then drive to the public library to upload them to the college for their website.

Now I've got to get back to that basement....