Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

Short course season means that it is not so far to run from one side of the pool to the other. I guess it is not very safe to run but as the ultimate people pleaser, I feel compelled to get the shot for my client. Alas, I am going to have to learn to slow down before I end up in the pool! The lighting was horrid as usual. Even worse this time because it was it was hampered by clouds and the majority of my light is natural. Of course, when the sun finally came out, the officials, understandably, ordered the blinds down because the reflection off the water means they cannot see the strokes and turns. We did our best as usual. Canon have promised the use of their new  1D X camera  and  70-200mm lens  which both promise amazing quality in low light so we will see. We may have some new equipment for the Long Course Season...stay tuned! The portraits were a lot of fun! LOVE shooting portraits...I don't have to run anywhere!

A great meet for young swimmers as the qualifying times are very generous. It's lovely watching the high fives all around for the little medal winners!  It's also a good meet for the older kids chasing State and Metro times.. AND the relays are a BLAST! You can see the rest of the photos on my swim site. Just click here .

Swim photography is not just about capturing the strokes, although that is fun too. For me, I like to capture moments inside and outside the pool. The tension as a team mate is swimming a close race. Sheer joy or occasionally disappointment after a tough swim. This weekend, I am the official photographer for the SMNE Speedo Sprints. A big challenge because it is an indoor venue and the light is low.  Sometimes the swimmers didn't breathe, especially in the 50's. Other times they breathed away from me.  There were no breaks. Just 8 hours of walking around the pool taking shots. I don't really have a sports camera, so I had to rely on timing. My 200mm lens meant that I could only shoot 4 lanes...I really needed two of me! My memory cards filled up quickly, (approx 40GB) even with reviewing and deleting. I was able to download a card on to my portable hard drive whilst I filled the next card but I was nervous deleting the images from the card so that I cou

I had this shot in my head for weeks. Finally I had ten minutes to shoot it and I was extremely happy with the results. Firstly, I started out with my non-swimmer to test lighting and angles. I used two 1600 Alien Bees with strip modifiers. The subject was placed in exactly the right position to let enough light define both edges w little or no definition through the middle. Then when my real swimmer was around, I shot him. I am excited about marketing these images in my upcoming material. This is my test subject... Here is my real swimmer!