David Ashdown's sports picture diary: Beijing Olympics - Volleyball

(DAVID ASHDOWN)

David Ashdown was in Beijing covering the 2008 Olympic Games

There is nothing better than water, sunshine and sport to make good pictures - unfortunately the reverse is true when it comes to the Olympic finals of beach volleyball, which should be played in bright sunshine with soft sand and lots of sunglasses. But as you can see from the picture it looked more like the final was being played in winter...in London, but every cloud has a silver lining. Well it does if you have to take pictures in pouring rain; it only lasted two sets instead of a possible three. On a more positive note because of the rain there is lots to look at in the crowd, all the different coloured rain ponchos that are handed out add to the scene, and it does make a nice atmospheric picture. It seems that here in Beijing you get wet one way or the other - it's either boiling hot, so you sweat like mad and get wet inside out, or it rains and it's cool, then you get wet outside in!

Picture taken on a Nikon D3, 14mm lens, aperture F4.0, 1/640th of a second