Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

Short course season changes the game for me quite a bit. With only 25 metres to catch a front on Fly shot, I'm lucky if I get one attempt. The older kids (and I mean over 12yrs) get most of the way down the first 25 without a breath. Breaststroke is still ok so long as the swimmer does the slow glide and not the quick bob up and down. Some swimmers do not come out of the water much at all, then they are just a head on top of the water but at these State Champs, we had some pretty stylish swimmers.  The great thing about short course is that we can get pretty close up shots at some points where is would have been almost impossible in long course. If I had to be at the end of the pool ready for the fly, there is no way I would have time to get the dive shot first before running 50m to the end of the pool. Also, even with the 300mm lens, the 50m pool is too long for the backstroke start shot. Poolside shots are one of my favourite to shoot so I was glad that I h...

The start of the short course season brings groups of swimmers from around the area aiming to make personal best times for State and Metro which are only weeks away. For me it meant the first time using my Canon Mark IV. I had a few adjustments to make but then got the hang of the amazing rapid fire...a far sight quicker than the Mark II. In addition to the 10 fps, I liked the extra zoom. The 300mm lens is just too bulky for me so it's a nice compromise to stick the 70-200mm on the 1.3x sensor. The lighting at SOPAC is all but non existent. At one stage I was feeling ready to sleep it was that dark. Around 12800 ISO dark. These challenges are sent to try us!