cold cross country meet

[fishinchicks]

I am heading out in a couple of hours to shoot my daughter's last cross country meet of the season. The temps are supposed to be in the mid 40's, with 95% cloud cover, and a 20% chance of light rain. I am hoping the rain stays away!

Is there any thing I should be doing to protect the camera and lenses when going from outside to the inside of the car? Not sure if fogging will be a problem or not?

I will post some of my results when I return later tonight.

[finnbay]

Do you have some gallon zip lock bags? Seal them in when they're cold, bring them into the house and let them warm up in there before you open the bag. If you have a good camera bag, leaving the camera in there until it warms up will work as well.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Cold CC meets are the norm.. I remember running the state meet back in 89'. There was 6" of snow on the ground. SHould have had CC Skis instead of CC shoes.

[Steve Foss]

chicks, you should be OK, but Ken gave you great advice for warming gear slowly.

In cold weather I make sure all my gear is back in my padded camera backpack before coming back into the warm car/house so it warms slowly with no fogging, but I take my memory cards out of the cameras before I do that so I can download them and get to work on the images right away.

Sounds like a mighty dark day for photography. Remember, it's better to ramp up iso to 800 or 1600 if needed and get a fast enough shutter speed to get sharp images. Keeping iso down so the grain is finer when it's that dark can lead to blurry images from slow shutter speed.

Have fun out there! God bless dry chemical hand warmers!

[fishinchicks]

It won't be the coldest meet I've been at, just the coldest while trying to take good photos. The kids won't be nearly as cold as the parents.

Deitz, I am guessing you would have liked some under armour in 1989? That stuff is great for runners.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Yup, it was cold.. The MN State HS had some rule about if one kid wore running tights all had to wear it, and they all had to be exactly the same. We were the only team that had the same tights... We also waxed the bottom of our shoes so the snow wouldnt stick. We eneded up winning the team championship.

[MN Shutterbug]

You'll probably have better luck shooting them as they're going uphill. They'll probably be moving a little slower.

[fishinchicks]

Them, or me?

[Dbl]

Beautiful day for shooting running! Nice even cloud cover, no bright sun to deal with! The camera should not be getting cold enough to worry much about moisture issues unless it is falling from the sky.

I don't think there is much for steady rain forecast today, but with intermittent drizzle or light rain you can keep the camera tucked in your coat and pull it out when you are ready to take some shots. You can always go the Hefty trash bag route to slip over the camera if you are worried.

I would be surprised if you needed over 800 ISO today and it might be a great day with the even lighting to give manual a try. Good luck, if you post some shots I will post a few from the other day where I used negative exposure for shooting late afternoon sun.

I was out just north of you hunting pheasants yesterday. They will taste mighty fine for dinner this weekend

[fishinchicks]

I was planning to start at an ISO of 800, and go from there. I did some test shots in the yard this morning, trying to get an approximate for manual. I'll definately post some results, if for nothing else, constructive criticism.

[Dbl]

Good luck, I know you will do well! Stay warm.

[MN Shutterbug]

I was out just north of you hunting pheasants yesterday. They will taste mighty fine for dinner this weekend

Just where was this, Dan?

[fishinchicks]

Well, it was cold! It didn't start to drizzle until they were handing out awards at the end. Perfect timing!

My daughter shaved 31 seconds off of her personal best - woo hoo!

I used some of the tips that I learned when I met Dbl and Yakfisher. I hope I did them proud.

This is on the sprint for the finish

Another on the sprint for the finish, with her good friend in the background

And Laura's "I'm trying really hard to keep my lunch" face after the finish

[finnbay]

great shots! You did us all proud!

[Dbl]

GREAT work fishinchicks! I think you did a very nice job! Nothing to critique here, just excellent sports shots. Good backgrounds, in focus and they show emotion and convey a story. You should be proud! And congratulations to your daughter on her personal best time!

[LPCrowRiverFisherman]

Don't blame her for the face, when running that hard it's a huge relief to be done. I had my last meet for the year yesterday. Still have on more year. By the way, what was her time.

[MN Shutterbug]

Great shots. Congrats to both of you. What does Laura think of her close up?

You've mastered this hobby quite fast. You were a quick study.

[Steve Foss]

Great images, ma'am!

[mmeyer]

Excellent job! I like everyone of them. You really captured the event for your daughter. She may not appreciate the last one right now but she will down the road.

[fishinchicks]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I let Laura preview before I hit the submit button, so she has seen the pics I posted. As long as I had the correct caption on the last shot, she was ok with it.

She is a freshman this year, so it is her first full varsity season. We have a very young, small team, so our times are not great. But, we no longer finish last in every meet. She finished in 20:27.

[yakfisher]

Those are great. Did she get to have any ice cream?

[fishinchicks]

She came close, but she kept her lunch, so no ice cream.

[yakfisher]

Well her mom should have at least sprung for it then, 31 seconds is a nice chunk of time to knock off over 2 weeks.

[fishinchicks]

I did buy her supper!

You and Dbl would be happy to hear that I put together a Sauder desk for my oldest daughter yesterday. It took 3 hours, but that included making soup in the crock pot, lunch, and other misc. mom duties. I was able to break out the power tools, so it was a good day.

[yakfisher]

Good work. Are your fields getting dry again? I was out in LQP county last week hunting in the rain. It is wet out there. Of course with winds like these today it shouldn't take too long to get things dried up.