The last couple of years in my home town of Launceston Tasmania have not fit the stereotype.
Know for green hills, regular rain fall, four seasons in one day events, we have had a very dry couple of years. The term “Launceston Umbrella” even emerged recently to roughly explain the phenomenon of huge fronts of weather driving our way, then managing to slew to either side of us, leaving us relatively un-affected.
Yesterday I had a pair of AFL games, at the fairly high VFL level, so big games especially with the state on the verge of entering the senior national competition. Rain was forecast, but to be honest, on recent experience it is hard to take it seriously.
All last year I shot from the northern end of any ground with brilliant sun over my shoulder, Nice weather, but lacking in angle choices and often at odds with my desire to shoot towards the crowd (usually in the Northern stand for that reason). It was also forecast to be a mild high teens, so not cold even if it was wet.
It is human nature to forget how it rains in winter and the blow flys in summer.
Did I prepare?
I had a rain coat, inadequate as it turned out.
My gear is rated as weather sealed (2x EM1x, 300f4, aging 40-150 f2.8, G9, 12-60 kit), but it had never really been tested.
My bag was the Crumpler Muli, chosen because of its reassuring heavy PVC top flap to house my laptop (shooting for a paper, so I needed to process at half time at the ground).
Ok, cutting to it.
15mm of horizontal rain in three hours, with no cover except to process up in the stands, wet from about half an hour in, then the cold set in, driven by some forceful, funnelling wind. You forget how large buildings like stadiums can create micro climates, especially with ours being improved, leaving big holes this year.
The lights came on at 1 in the afternoon, creating a weird night-not night dynamic. Things were grim. AFL is an all weather sport so play was assumed, the rest of us did not get the luxury of running around to stay warm.
My files were flat to say the least, the long lens in particular compressing so much rain fall, sometimes the focus fell short!
A bit of dehaze and added saturation and many were decent, but only just. Story telling in the extreme. I appreciate my little sensors handling high ISO’s and still resolving detail with decent colour and contrast in this space. Tough gig for any kit.
Like some kind of smug “told you I was coming” scenario, it came down most aggressively in the second and fourth quarters, then the first quarter of the women’s match, probably the heaviest of the day.
It seemed to clear during their warm up, but I did not warm up, just waited the 45 minutes in the cold and feeling sorry for my self, not even processing because I did not want to risk my laptop to wet hands.
Oddly, getting wet again seemed more comfortable than just being wet before this second game. Remember, this is mid afternoon, not a night match and that’s not sunshine on her shoulder. The exposures were actually darker than night games I have covered here.
What worked.
The EM1x’s and attached lenses were sodden for over three hours straight. I was wiping away water constantly just so I could see and function. I neglected to bring a towel, but to be honest it would have been wet from minute one and another thing to worry about.
The files were mostly usable unless distance compression became too much,
ISO’s range from some brighter periods at 800 with the f2.8 lens to long periods of 6400 with the f4 300mm. Nothing to worry about, except for the rain itself.
At one point I thought one screen had given out, but it was water on the eye sensor. Sometimes shooting half blind sometimes, water from from eye piece to subject, I got the shots that mattered just trusting the camera to find something.
The rain swirled enough to catch me a couple of time, my 300 copping some rain on the lens front late in the day, which I just had to shoot through as I had no chamois.
The game was surprisingly high scoring, a testament to the quality of the teams and the ground holding on decently. A country game would likely have been a mud-fest.
The Muli bag held on most of the day, protecting my laptop and the G9 until water running down my back soaked into the pack panel of the bag and the base started to get wet. No harm done.
My coat was great for half the first game, then it just gave up, became a wind sheet, cooling me more than protecting me. I clearly need something that allows hours of static protection like an oil skin or heavy PVC fishermans jacket, not one of those hiking coats with a “range” limit. The limit was exceeded.
Shorter lens work was noticeable more contrasty.
What remained the same was my mobility, although the other togs, welded to chairs with heavy lenses were better protected by ponchos etc.
One quarter of play.