NFL: Shooting in the Rain

Shot the red-hot NY Jets third victory in a row (a 24-17 win over the Tennessee Titans) on Sunday in a on and off again rain, that was more annoying than troublesome, but I did get the opportunity to test out my ThinkTank Hydrophobia, but more on that later.

Decided to partake in the press lunch after setting up captions and folders for transmission and skipped shooting any pre-game images. When I got out to the field shortly before kickoff, there was a light but steady rain, and it was very overcast, but in my opinion it made for a very even light on the field, that was easy to shoot in.

Early on it looked like the game might turn into a laugher as the Jets jumped out early, but it settled into a tightly fought contest.

Caught a decent jube shot of New York Jets tight end Ben Hartsock after his TD reception as well as a sequence of Mark Sanchez rushing for one.





Jerricho Cotchery had a nice day, captured a few pics of him that I liked as well, overall I just felt like I was finding better shooting angles. I had a perfect spot for a would be touchdown as well, but the receiver could not keep his feet in, so those images went into the scrap heap, as they were not newsworthy...here's some of Cotchery's day...





I moved around a bit more this weekend then I have the previous few weeks, and I just think more than anything I guessed right more often. Plays just seemed to happen coming at me.



On this one I moved to the back wall next to the TV cameras right before the snap, great guess as Lendale White took it in from 5 yards out...did I say great, I meant lucky guess...



Being a Rutgers grad, and HUGE Rutgers football fan, I was happy to cover former Rutgers standout Kenny Britt who had four catches I believe, here was his longest of the day, again lucky it happened on my side of the field...




Of course a few of the QB's (tough day for Collins as he misfired on his last 14 of the day)


Of course the Jets "D" had a little bit of a hand in that, as well as a couple of dropped balls...



This image below was my favorite image from the game, just liked the setup, the angle almost makes it look like the viewer is the QB...(pass was incomplete by the way...oh well)



A few quick web pubs I found...







The ThinkTank Hydrophobia

The rain was more of a nuisance than anything else, it did nothing to enhance the images at all, nor really detract from them either. Wearing rain gear was a coin flip, if you wore it, it was hot enough to trap heat and make you sweat, if you didn't you stayed cooler, but got a bit wetter from the steady drizzle...in other words damned if you do, damned if you don't. My Mark III and 300mm however wore it's rain gear, the ThinkTank Hydrophobia.

Over the past couple of years I've picked up several pieces of ThinkTank gear. I use their modular belt system which rocks, I have the Artificial Intelligence "15 for my MacBook, and every time I fly my gear is in my Airport Security bag (I've yet to find a better roller). The Hydrophobia was no exception to their excellence. It was easy to put on, very secure and easy to work with through the arm holes, again as is with their other products everything is very well thought out.

Once the rain subsided for a time in the second half, I rolled it up easily and tucked it away on the lens hood. The rain started again, and I deployed it in seconds and didn't miss a play. Just a great piece of gear, here's hoping the make a version for shorter lenses.

With that I'll say farewell with a two-handed wave from Mark Sanchez and get ready for some upcoming shoots, like the start of the NHL season on Saturday night, Devils-Flyers!!!