Photo Assignment 8: Weather

Student-athletes and their parents crowd indoors to avoid the rain during a weather delay at the Whitaker Tennis Courts in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25, 2025. ©2025 Rubyanne Moley/SMU

This past weekend, the University of Texas hosted a competitive tennis tournament that I had the honor of competing in. However, due to a stormy forecast, there were many rain delays. This photo was taken in the middle of the day during the second rain delay, which had light showers with lightening and thunder in the distance. Players hurried into the clubhouse and to their cars to catch a lunch break while the clouds passed.

What I did right: This image captures the mood of the situation--annoyance, frustration, and tiredness. The emotions on every face, even the girl looking into the camera, tell a story. There is clear movement within the crowd, adding action. I like the bright tennis outfits in contrast with the gloomy, rolling clouds. If you look in the foreground and background, you can see rain droplets, which demonstrates the situation. I like that they landed on the lens as I took these photos.

What I did wrong: The exposure was tricky with the bright sun behind the clouds, making the act of balancing skin tones and the sky difficult. I was within the crowd, which made this photo close up. I wish I would've gotten more legs in the picture and maybe one of the many parents with an umbrella. The rain was spotty, so some of my pictures didn't even have rain, relying on only context clues within the frame to understand that it was storming.

How I fixed it: I shot this photo at a quick shutter speed to get the rain drops in focus. I tried to hold my camera slightly up in the crowd to get a wider and more clear view, since I'm average height. I adjusted the aperture often and corrected the white balance in my camera's settings to work with cloudy lighting. I made sure to zoom out my lens and take as many photos as I could, since everyone was moving. I also didn't fear knowing someone's name or not, as that was limiting my pictures before.

This was a unique assignment that posed a good challenge of "chasing the rain." Most of the weekend's storms fell in the middle of the night, and since people were supposed to be the focus, I couldn't jump out of bed and see a bustling city (besides some dangerous night time settings if I felt like jeopardizing my wellbeing). It taught me to keep my camera on me as much as my phone, keep a charged battery, and don't fear snapping the perfect shot.