My muddy contributions

I saw a couple of threads on here showing the muddy conditions of recent football games, so I thought I'd join in with some of my muddiest from Friday night.

#1 Before the uniforms even got dirty the mud had an affect causing a dropped punt that was recovered by the punting team.

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I saw someone talking in another thread about using a plastic bag to protect their camera when they were shooting in the rain. I used a clear plastic bag over the body of my camera when I was shooting in the pouring rain at this game, but there was another photographer there with a 30D and he wasn't using anything to protect his camera. I asked him about it and he said that it wasn't really necessary because the camera was pretty watertight. That got wondering exactly how fragile are these cameras and how necessary is it to protect them in the rain? How many of you use something to protect your cameras when you're shooting in the rain, or not?

Wow,thats a lot of mud!I used to love playing in conditions like that .------Many years ago

How do the referees stay so clean LOL

Great shots in such awful weather!

Great shots.

With regards to the plastic bag . . . how did you secure it to the camera/lens? Rubber band? I would think that with a 30D you would want some kind of H2O protection.

I've never seen anyone shooting in the rain without something - bag, umbrella, hiding under something, towel, jacket, etc. Personally I don't trust how water tight it may be, I just wouldn't risk it.

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #2186209
I've never seen anyone shooting in the rain without something - bag, umbrella, hiding under something, towel, jacket, etc. Personally I don't trust how water tight it may be, I just wouldn't risk it.

I don't take chances.One rain drop and my camera gets put away

montanafan wrote in post #2184403
I saw someone talking in another thread about using a plastic bag to protect their camera when they were shooting in the rain. I used a clear plastic bag over the body of my camera when I was shooting in the pouring rain at this game, but there was another photographer there with a 30D and he wasn't using anything to protect his camera. I asked him about it and he said that it wasn't really necessary because the camera was pretty watertight. That got wondering exactly how fragile are these cameras and how necessary is it to protect them in the rain? How many of you use something to protect your cameras when you're shooting in the rain, or not?

I was shooting my son's cross country team at the district meet the other day in a steady rain (and not much wind). I used an oversized beach umbrella that I would plunge into the ground and then carry around to protect me and my 20D. It worked quite well at keeping us dry. Unfortunately, I also found myself with uninvited guests under my umbrella that made pulling it up and moving between the start and finish line awkward. The runners were quite muddy and no one set any records on the course. I'm still processing and hope to have a few pictures up soon.

That's almost as bad as the swamp soccer tourniment I covered a few months back!

John

jej826, yeah I don't think the boys minded the mud so much, but when it started to rain, it poured, and it was a cold rain and that wasn't much fun.

I had thought like you before this game and decided that if it rained, I just wouldn't shoot it, but it was a big rivalry game and it wasn't raining at the beginning of the game. After this experience I think I'd only shoot in the same sort of conditions again if it was a really big game like this one. Otherwise, the camera goes back in the bag when the first raindrops start to fall.

Ian_W, I don't know, they sure do look sparkling clean out there though don't they? I do have one picture of a tackle in a huge pool of water about two or three inches deep and the official is getting splashed good. Funny thing about it is that he's turning his face away from the splash and has his eyes closed.

c3p1, thank you! That's the nastiest weather I've taken the camera out in so far. I learned a couple of things though, like not to put the camera under your coat to keep it dry and get it too close to your body. When you pull it back out to shoot, your body temperature has fogged up the lens big time.

troutbreath, thank you very much! I used a clear plastic dry cleaning bag that I stuck the camera in and had a hole cut out for the lens. I then secured it to the UV filter with a rubber band. It worked pretty well. Someone else had told me to take a stronger bag, like a gallon or two gallon freezer bag, and use an exacto knife to cut a hole around a UV filter then secure the UV filter to the opening from the inside with double-sided tape and then just screw the whole thing to the lens with the camera inside the bag. It sounds like a good idea, but I didn't try it this time. If I have to shoot in these kinds of conditions again I might give it a try though.

MJPhotos24, I agree. I couldn't believe he wasn't trying to protect the camera at all. There was no way I was going to expose my camera to the rain that way.

TxLerman, that beach umbrella idea sounds like a good one, except for the uninvited guests it would attract. I couldn't use it on the football field because of the carpeting along some parts of the sideline though. Someone else suggested I get one of those umbrella hats. I might look kind of funny, but it could help I guess.

johncockburn, I think if anyone asked me to shoot anything with "swamp" in the name I would run the other way.

great shots!!! i liked 3, 5, and 6

SkWeEkiE, thank you very much!