Snow and Sports

Every week, we, like newspapers across the country, receive several requests from the Sports department to photograph high school sporting events. As hard as you try not too, some of the imagery can be repetitive in the search for that elusive and unique sports photo that you don't see in a newspaper everyday. I like to think of it as trying to catch the big fish. It takes patience.
Thursday offered one of those opportunites when a rogue winter storm slammed into Colorado Springs and gave me a chance to photograph the Manitou Springs vs. Colorado Springs Christian School girls soccer game while it snowed flakes the size of quarters.
It's actually trickier to shoot that it appears. First you are battling the elements. I had to cover my camera and lenses in waterproof protection because the snow was very wet. Also I was wearing gloves and other winter gear which makes it hard to operate the camera. And finally autofocus is a challenge because the cold weather is affecting how the camera is focusing and the huge size of the snowflakes makes it hard to autofocus on the action.