To continue from the last post, I shot UIL state swimming & diving championships on Saturday for 1st Photo Texas, who shoots for UIL.
I enjoy shooting the swimming finals for the most part. I mean, it’s as close to hanging out by the pool as you can get when you’re working as a sports photographer. It’s in a climate controlled building, but if you do end up getting a little warm from running around, shoot the next event and you’re sure to get splashed just enough to cool you down.
The drawback to swimming, other than the athletes are covered by water most of the time, is that after a little while every backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly stroke start to look the same. So what can I do to shake things up? Well, in this situation, not a lot.
I couldn’t do an artsy blur because these photos are intended for UIL to use for their program, etc., and they will be posted online for parents to buy. Parents generally want to recognize their child in the photo. Also, I was shooting the official awards ceremony photos, which occurred after every third race, so running up to the rafters or waiting at the bottom of the pool to get a different angle was a bit of a timing issue. I could have tried to get a few wide angle shots of pool-side supporters, but I was having the best results just shooting action in the pool.
So I stuck to that. I just tried to get the best, cleanest action shots possible. I used my D700 with my 80-200mm f2.8 and focused on clean results. Here are some images I came up with.
Diving was a little different. I haven’t shot a lot of diving, just once or twice when it was intermixed with a swim meet. I enjoy watching diving, especially on the Olympics when they have that camera that drops at the same speed as the diver, straight in to the water. That’s cool! My rig isn’t anything like that. In fact, in this case, I just tried to find a spot to shoot from that didn’t have ropes, poles or signs in the background. It was harder than it sounds.
There were four diving boards and the divers would rotate which board they used, so I had to be in a spot where I could see all of them. My options were to stand behind the boards and walk back and forth, to stand on the opposite side of the pool and face the divers, or sit on one side and get a profile. I chose the last option. Shooting from behind the boards blocked my view of the pool, and sitting across the pool required a 300mm lens, which I didn’t have.
I found a spot I was happy with on the side of the pool and stuck to it for the most part. Here are a few diving shots.
I have three days of UIL girls basketball ahead of me this weekend, so maybe I’ll be more photographically adventurous there. Thanks for looking!