Local Swim Team

I was asked to make pictures for this year swim team at my son’s old High School. Quite a few of the guys know me so that makes things a lot easier in that they are a lot more relaxed when I’m on deck vs the old days when I shot for the local paper. They also know that I won’t post pictures that make them look bad. Being a pretty good swim team helps too. A lot more smiles!

I shot a meet last week and decided to keep my 70-200mm lens in the bag and pretty much shot the entire meet with my 50mm f1.8 lens. I was pretty happy with the results.I usually just kept the 70-200mm on and focused on the swimmers in the pool. On this day I went with the wider view and some real close stuff. One of the benefits of shooting for the team is that I pretty much can go wherever I want and shoot from all kinds of angles. I also keep notes of pictures that didn’t quite work and try again at the next meet. It’s a lot of fun while also being a challenge. Anyone who has shot an event at a high school pool can attest to that. They’re caves.

The pictures I make won’t end up in print for the most part. They surely aren’t going to make me famous. But they will end up included in a slide show for the Swim Banquet. That’s where the real payoff is. I have yet to meet a high school kid who didn’t like seeing himself up on the screen and it does generate a lot of smiles. Mission accomplished.