Making lemonade

Busy day earlier. Involved writing and photography and driving about 80 miles. Good to stay busy, I suppose.

Crappy weather though. No sun. Occasional hail. Frequent rainstorms.

So I started my day at a conference championship track meet. It runs slowly, is paused by the weather several times, and by the time I have to leave for another assignment -- nothing exciting.

Listen, I love shooting track. Especially when you have a chance to really buckle down and focus on the event. Know the schedule and locations. Figure out the lane assignments. Who's going to win. Who's probably going to win. Prefocusing. Remote cameras. Prostrate shooting. Throwing on the wide angle. The whole shabang.

Getting to dedicate 4 hours to a track meet is awesome.

Having to zip through a couple events quickly (all field, track stuff hadn't even started) and leave is miserable. Field stuff is always happening simultaneously, and you're always going to miss something.

So I left with a bad taste in my mouth (and bad weather in the air). Ran to do one assignment. Ran to do another assignment.

And I had an urge to get back to track. I was pretty sure it would still be going on, and I just wanted to do it for myself. Deal with the weather. Deal with the crappy schedule. Take lemons. Make lemonade.

I hustle back to the track just in time for the last event: 4x400 relay, boys and girls. Fun event. Usually a close one. Handoffs. Quick.

I throw on the 300mm and shoot the girls. It's a runaway race. Nothing fun. No sun.

Now boys. Last heat of the day. Last race.

Bang goes the starting pistol. Catch a decent sequence on the first handoff. And all of a sudden...

Rain. Spot shower. Starts coming down at a pretty good clip. The official near me throws a quick smile my way, as if to say: "Last race ... no way were stopping now."

I shoot him back a grin. Then I remember that I've got equipment in my hands that's worth about the same as a small car.

I do the under-the-sweatshirt move back to my camera bag (#domke), where I pull out a trash bag (#hefty). Tear a small hole. Throw it over the 300. Over the body. But still not quickly enough to catch the second handoff.

I get settled again. Third handoff goes to the anchor leg, but nothing exciting. The rain continues to pick up.

And around the final turn, it's a pretty close one. And one of the runners is from a local team (hurrah!). I pick up the focus on the local kid, wait till he starts to fill up the frame, then lay on the shutter. Hard. Just like both these kids, running hard to finish this meet.

And you know what. I think I got a good one. I think I made some lemonade.