USC Men’s Water Polo: 2008 National Champions

A few weeks ago, I was assigned to photograph the USC men’s water polo team for a feature.

Because of the weather forecasting a severe storm, the coach and my editor both offered to reschedule, and most photographers probably would have done so. However, I figured shooting them in the rain would actually make more interesting pictures, so I stuck with the challenge and I think it worked out for the better (see all the photos here).

The three players I was shooting, Arjan Ligtenberg, Ryan Cummins, and Jovan Vranes, were surprisingly reluctant to stand out in the rain, and they surely weren’t willing to go into the pool. But after a couple of minutes and seeing the photos, they began to have fun with it.

Technical Notes:

To highlight water, or in this case, falling rain, you have to use sidelighting. So, I set up two flashes as rimlights behind the players both to light the rain and to create more dramatic highlighting that would outline the players. For my main light I had wanted to shoot through an umbrella to soften the light, but the high winds forced me to use direct light instead.

As for waterproofing the flashes and my wireless transmitters, I simply rubber-banded clear Ziplock bags over the tops of them. They’re still flashing, so I suppose the makeshift rain covers were effective.