Swiming Photo????/

[Darkside]

Let me start by saying I know very,very little about swim meets.

I have a friend who has asked me to take some photos of her son at his club level, swim meet.

Is there any good tips or any web tutorials for this kind of photography?

Thanks

Darkside

[eastcoast909]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

There are a number of threads in the "Sports" forum where people have talked about how and what to use in shooting Swim meets.

Here is one thread that might help:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43984&highlight=swim

You can also do more searchs in the forum to find some more.

Another source of information could be Fred Miranda in the sports section also.

[JustJerk]

70-200 f/4 isn't a good lens for this. I had to shoot pretty much at iso 1600 on a tripod :cry: After a lot of work - some of the photos did come out ok. If I would go for the 2.8 IS verision.

[Darkside]

Thanks for the help, I guess I should have done a little more searching around here.

I will check out Fred Miranda.

Darkside

[pdrow]

Hello,
I have been a swim mom for 11 years, so I know a whole lot about swim meets. You are fortunate that most summer club meets are outdoors. That will make it so much easier to shoot. I only had the opportunity to shoot one outdoors meet since going digital It was wonderful! The shots were grand. I had a much harder time indoors as I only have the kit lens for the 300 D and the very cheap version of the 70-300.

Try to go watch a meet before you shoot it. I can generally catch my son on the upstroke ensuring a face shot. I have been watching him for so long I know his rythym. I can genreally catch his friend Cari on the upstroke as well. I've been watching her for 6 years. Kids I don't know are much harder.

Club meets will usually allow you get on deck and shoot. Some larger ones will not. Be careful at the end of the pool as some kids have killer turns- and will kill a camera from the amount of water sprayed over the wall.

I will post one from the outdoor meet in the sports section since I don't know if attachments are allowed here.

Enjoy the meet. My son had retired - called the college coaches who were recruiting him and explained he was going to focus on academics in college. I am having a mild case of withdrawal. We parked at the pool for graduation last week. I think that made graduation even harder.

ps - take plenty of sunscreen.

[Darkside]

Thanks for the tips, pdrow. I will try to put them to good use.

This is what I have learned so far, after a little more talking to my friend.

Photographs are allowed beside the pool, you just can't "camp-out" there.

I think what she REALLY wants is just one shot of her son emerging from the water doing the breast stroke. If this is the case, I told her we could do this at her home pool. I will see if I can come-up with some of the floating lane markers things to add a little to the shot.

Another question. What is the best light to look for.

Darkside

[Darkside]

And another question I forgot to ask. At the indoor meets, has the airborne chlorine had any effect on your equiptment?

Darkside

[pdrow]

I used mine at a few indoor meets, and I didn't notice any problems from being in there. If you are shooting breast stroke, which is what I posted, you'll do fine. His face was slightly shadowed, so I used the shadow/highlights from CS to fix it.

If she basically wants the kind of shot I posted, I would attempt to do it at a time other than the meet. Some meets won't let you go to the end where the blocks are. That was why there were shadows on his face. You can probably go to the pool where he paractices, so you can have the black line under him, lane ropes if wanted, etc. Also, you won't be rushed. If you shoot at a meet, your opportunity is limited.

Good luck
pam

[Darkside]

Thanks abunch,

I didn't think about going to the practice. GOOD tip.

Darkside