I need to invest in a raincoat.

You would think after spending all summer in rainy London I would have a raincoat, but I don't. It's really unfortunate, though, because sometimes an umbrella just isn't enough.

For one of my newsroom shifts for class, I went out with a reporter doing a story about high school football games starting early due to rain, and my job was to take still photos to go with the story. It was a lot of fun but the only bad thing was it was raining. We really lucked out though because the first time we went to shoot it wasn't actually raining (just really, really, really, really, really humid) and when we went out for the live shot there was a ledge we could stand under and stay dry.

I thought the overall rain experience was pretty bad, but it was NOTHING compared to the next week.

My photos from high schools moving their football game start times up.

I went out to this SEC JC Pep Rally in Jefferson City with a reporter. I was all excited because it was a pep rally! There would be excited fans, music and cheering and it would so much fun and there would be so many opportunities for great pictures.

And then the storm started rolling in. First step in the field with the potential for rain is to protect the equipment. In case of no rain bags, use trash bags.

Protected camera

Protected backpack (for live shots)

The weather was beautiful earlier in the day, so none of us were prepared for the rain. I had an umbrella, but I can't take pictures and hold it at the same time and I didn't want it to break in the wind, so that was pretty much useless. It started pouring and we all got drenched. There was the live reporter, trying to report live in the middle of a storm, another reporter doing a story for later in the evening, a girl shadowing the live reporter for her class, and me.

The girl who was shadowing was trying to communicate with the producers back at the station, so she was on the phone most of the time. The live reporter's scripts got drenched so he had to read off his phone. Both of the phones ended up broken because of the rain. 

I'm struggling with my camera, trying to keep it dry with a trash bag wrapped around it but also have access to all the right buttons. I didn't have any sort of jacket with me so I got super cold and completely soaked.

Despite the miserable situation, I got some great photos, the first live shot went well (the second one ended up freezing on air) and the other reporter's story ended up great as well. And now I know I need a raincoat because the situation would have improved about 10 times with one.

My photos from the SEC JC Pep Rally.