High Jump - Too easy to shoot!

I have shot a few high school track meets (and two of the three were COLD and rainy!) and with trying to run all around the track trying to get pictures of as many of the athletes as possible, I never made it to the far side of the stadium where the high jump was held. (A track meet REALLY needs more than one photographer. Too much is happening at the same time - races around the track as well as separate little areas for long jump, triple jump, pole vault, discus, shot put and high jump. Crazy!)

Photography in the rain?

I am shooting a track meet this afternoon and there's a slight chance of rain. How big a concern is that?

Canon advertises that my main camera bodies and lenses are "weather resistant" with special seals and channels for water to flow, but they won't tell you what that really means. How much "weather" can your gear safely resist? Some photographers brag about shooting in pouring rain, but many more will tell you about damage to their gear during rain. The common advice is that, unless you have the highest end gear, your camera can tolerate a sprinkle, but don't expect it to survive much more than that. So, what do you do if it is raining or threatening to rain?

The wonderful versatility of the modern DSLR

DSLRs can be versatile quick change artists. Last night, my Canon 6D was quiet and introspective, shooting artwork for an artist's portfolio. The camera was perched on a tripod, surrounded by lighting umbrellas, shooting RAW, ISO 100, high f-stop for maximum depth of field, single shot AF, triggered by a wired remote shutter release. This afternoon, my cameras will be swinging on BlackRapid straps as I try to catch track athletes at a high school track meet. No tripods, of course, but shooting JPEG's for maximum speed (clearing the buffer), AF continuously monitoring and adjusting, high shutter speeds of 1/800-1/1000 (or more, if these clouds burn off), fast advance, auto ISO to handle swings from sunlight to shade (or cloud cover), low f-stop (2.8) on the 5D with the 70-200mm lens to isolate athletes, higher f-stop on the 6D (typically 4 or 5.6) with the 24-70mm lens to give contextual wide angle shots. As tools go, you can't get much more versatile than the modern DSLR.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog! I hope to use this forum to talk about my photographic coverage of events, about shooting portraits, about photographic technology that I use. I hope that I am able to pass on things I learn while shooting around eighty thousand pictures each year. Don't hesitate to toss questions my way, too. If I don't have the answer, I still enjoy the discussion and maybe we can find the answer together.

Doug Brock