HS Swimming

[tward88]

Talk about a tough sport to photograph. I thought Volleyball was hard until I tried Swimming. We have had 2 meets and I got one decent picture from the first meet and a couple from the second. Very low light, fast action and glare. The pool at the second meet had banks of windows in the four corners of the pool. so some parts of the pool had overwhelm,ing sunlight and some parts had next to nothing.

[JSPhoto]

The third and fourth are good shots. Swimming isn't really that tough, you just have to think a bit differently..... think easy! LOL, seriously, it really isn't as tough as it looks, it, like anything else action wise is simply timing.

John

[Old Timer]

Well it's always nice to have a new challenge. LOL Seems like as sports photographers we are faced with more than our share. Every venue and every sport has it's own unique set of challenges. The one thing I have learned is that each time we face the challenge it gets easier and easier to overcome it. It is a matter of learning the sport and knowing your equipment and it's capabilities. You nailed that third shot. Now just keep duplicating what you did.

[dhyravy]

Since we don't have any indoor pools in the area, our swimming season is mainly outdoors and much earlier in the year. I've never covered any swimming, but as OT said it carries it's own challenges. Looks like you are getting some decent results so far.

[tward88]

Thanks for the comments and feedback. I really appreciate it.

Let’s see... 20 degrees outside here right now so outdoor pools are out. Though for taking pictures it would be much better. Maybe they can change so I can take better pictures... This pool was hard because they have big banks of windows in the four corners. This lets the light cross the pool. I was using aperture priority and in some parts of the pool the speed would be 1/125th and in some places 1/4000th. Capturing the butterfly and breast stroke are not to bad as you know their faces will pop up each stroke. Free style is hard because they take breaths randomly and it can be on either side. So depending on where they are in the lane, the settings change dramatically. I ended up setting for one section of the pool and hoping they took a breath facing me in that section. Needless to say it was a struggle. Another meet tonight, so no sunlight issues. Hopefully I will get better results.

[ciddog91]

The 3rd and 4th shots are nice. I like the timing and action.

Were you using a flash?

Phil

[paekiss]

Oh Swimming action. look good

[Homer]

I will be shooting my first high school swim meets this coming year. I think the best advice I could give is when faced with a new sport to shoot, go to a practice to see what the best angles are and where you should place yourself.

Jim

[Lori11]

Love the 3rd shot! Its so noisey at those meets too lol