A good swim

Sometimes I forget about my 80-200 when we are not up to sports.  But truly, I believe it is my best portrait lens.  It is very sharp at f/4 but it also produces absolutely lovely backgrounds.  I watch my background as much as my subject and after my son’s swim workout, he sat down with a lawn about 30 feet behind him.  The result I am very happy with.  It is a 3-day weekend here and the weather was beautiful yesterday.  Spending the day at the pool is perfect for keeping out of harm’s way.

Nikon D90 with Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 at 155mm.  1/400s at f/4, ISO100, Portrait mode.  In Lightroom, I reduced clarity and added vibrance.  I took my highlights down a little to deal with the sun on his face.  I used split toning to introduce some blue into the highlights along his nose and chin.  I mask sharpened and was finished.

My parents

My father is 86 and will be, God willing, 87 in December.  The last few years have not been kind to him.  My children bring him great joy and I believe they are part of the reason he is still with us.  Sunday, he came out to the pool to watch my son swim.  My father has not been able to watch my son in any races in the last 3 years.  I am sad about that and it is part of the reason I take so many swim team photos.  It was nice to see him out Sunday, even if it was for a short time.

Nikon D90 with Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 at 80mm.  1/1000s at f/4, ISO100, Normal Mode.  In Lightroom, cropped a distraction out of the top part of the photo, adjusted light levels, increased vibrance and decreased clarity.  The 80-200 is a spectacular portrait lens and I know of at least one pro that prefers it to the more modern 70-200VR f/2.8.

Test

The final meet of the season is this weekend: Ponderosa.  He will test himself in all four strokes.  The meet is the best of the best; the top kids out of the 15,000 in the league.  Only about 50 7/8 boys will make the meet.  Any child that makes the meet is a champion and a winner already.

He is a wildcard and he knows it.  The other top boys have seen his asthma struggles.  They know he is capable but they also know he is vulnerable.  I don’t want to see him struggling to breathe.  I want to see him breaking a record, setting a mark, making the finals.  He doesn’t need to win, there are other 8-year olds that are favored, but making the finals is his goal and I want him to get there.

And then, here is the rub, he is only 8.  It is a long road if he chooses to continue.  His coaches remind the parents of these little hotrods: it isn’t important how they swim when they are 8, it is how they swim when they are 15.  They are right, of course…but tomorrow is different.

Tomorrow, I just want my little 8-year old to be a star.  When he leaves his all in the pool, win or lose, I just want to hug the little guy and tell him that no one has ever made me prouder.

Summer Thunder

OK, I am exhausted.  I am not quite over this cold and the past weekend was FILLED with swimming: a dual meet on Saturday and the Summer Thunder Invitational on Sunday (left home at 10:30am and returned at 9:15pm).

The Saturday dual meet was another blowout for our kids.  My son moved up to swim with the 10-year olds in the Individual Medley (where you swim one lap with each stroke).  He finished second but in the middle of his breaststroke, he had an asthma attack.  It was…heart wrenching to watch and I was right in front of him officiating in his lane.  He made it to the wall and hung on for a moment.  I could hear him crying and laboring to breathe and I wanted so desperately to reach down and pull him out of the water.  But he wasn’t quitting.  He rested for what seemed an eternity and he suddenly pushed away from the wall and started his last, free-style leg.  He swam possessed and swam down the second place boy like he was just floating.  He got out of the pool at the other end and broke down crying.  My wife was there and she hushed him and led him away where he could be alone.  

I didn’t see him again until the butterfly and I asked him how he was.  He said, “I’m good, Dad.”  I asked what happened and he explained it to me.  How I was able to not reach in and pull him out, I do not know.  I knew he wasn’t physcially hurting but it was very hard to not scoop him up and hug his trauma away.  I am glad I didn’t.  He showed again what he is made of.

By the way, when he swam the butterfly he shattered his best time by 2.51 seconds.  And at the Summer Thunder Invitational, he took third overall among the 85 or so 8-year old boys that qualified and entered.  The photo above is from Summer Thunder and it is the only one I have processed.  I hate the lighting in the indoor pools and they can get very hot and humid by late afternoon.

Plea and Push

No meet this weekend, our bye weekend.  

Sometimes the younger kids are quite terrified umm…apprehensive swimming in a meet, especially their first.  I remember when my son was 5, he froze-up at the divisional meet.  It was his first time in an indoor pool.  The pool had a deep end.  He swam warmups but when it came time for his race: nope, no way!  I had to go get him and let him know it was all right.  He wasn’t crying but he has a stubborn streak that can’t be overcome.  

Or maybe, I should take my cue from the woman in the photo.  After pleading for her little girl to jump in (first photo), she finally just gave her a push (second photo).  The little sweety finished the race, dead last, but she finished.  I doubt anyone will have to push her again.

I saw this drama unfolding as I waited for this first batch of 6 and under swimmers.  Its not like I had to be on my toes, the winning time for the heat was nearly 2 minutes and it took this little girl over 4 minutes to finish.  And besides, I am not going to disqualify a 4, 5, or 6 year old who has absolutely no chance of winning.  I will leave that to one of my co-refs that I call the prickler stickler but even he couldn’t make this call.

Nikon D90 with 80-200 at 200mm.  1/800s@ f/4, ISO100, Landscape mode.  In Lightroom, increased saturation and vibrance, sharpened and exported two photos to Corel Photopaint.  Combined into one photo and added the black frame, saved as a single jpeg.

Bruised Shins

She is tiny as this photo shows.  She tackles life head on, bruising up her shins at times but persevering.  There are times I simply want to hug her and hold her and keep her from life’s drama but then I realize she is usually the creator of the drama…

Anyway, there is an odd quality to this photo that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Nikon D90 with Nikkor 89-200 at 125mm.  1/320s at f/4.5, ISO125, Landscape mode.  She was under the ready-bench tent.  In Lightroom, I cropped, desaturated, adjusted light levels, clarity and contrast, and mask sharpened. 

Inside the Butterfly

Swimming is an exciting sport.  It is a very visual spectacle and the water creates a swirling, splashing excitement.  Black and white can bring out the beauty of the water and the light.  Eliminating the color made the water droplets stand out, capturing a bit of sun in each splash.  I love how the swimmer’s muscles and her beautiful form are showcased in the difficult butterfly stroke.

Nikon D90 with 80-200 at 80mm.  1/2000s at f/4, ISO100, Landscape mode.  In Lightroom, converted to grayscale, increased contrast and highlight brightness, then sharpened.  Increasing the contast and highlights made the water droplets stand out.  I shot at ISO100 in order to stay at f/4.  If I shot at Nikon’s normal ISO200, a number of shots would have been overexposed as the D90 is limited to 1/4000s top speed.

New Record

My son broke the team record for the 25-free.  His goal is to set the record for all four strokes.  The swimteam is more than 30 years old and the free record had stood since 2001.  He also holds the 6 and under backstroke record.  He has been through the statistics for the entire league and his time put him in the top 4 or 5 boys.  My daughter took a 4th in breaststroke, her first individual ribbon of the season.  She is thrilled.

There was an incident of trash talking among the 8 year old boys.  After my son’s free, the 7/8s from both teams were gathered for the breaststroke.  They were talking about my son’s prior swim and one of the other team’s boys said, “Big deal, I am going to beat you on the breaststroke.”  My son had been quiet to that point but he looked at the other kid and said, “Beat me.”

My son: 22.63s; other kid: 39.33s.  After the race, the other kid wouldn’t look at my son and kept his head down and turned away.  My son walked up to him and shook his hand.  He said, “Good race.  You’ll get me next time.”  This is why my son has friends among the 8 year old boys throughout the league.  My son’s thinking is an odd combination of self-assuredness and humility.  He says that it is tough for kids to have to swim against someone like him and he feels a little sorry for them.  He doesn’t mean it in a cocky way, it is simply a fact to him.

This is my son on the ready bench during the trash-talking incident.  I will post more photos later.  Happy Memorial Day in the USA.

Nikon D90 with Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 at 135mm.  1/200s at f/4.5, ISO125, Landscape mode.  In Lightroom, changed setting to portrait mode and added vibrance and saturation.  The shade of the ready bench allows for beautiful skin tones and nicely rendered colors.

Skimming the Surface

I love photographing young swimmers.  It isn’t really natural to want to plunge head-first into water.  A better start might pick up .5s on her time.

We have another meet this weekend.  Pressure from the other parents has increased.  There are some behind-the-back comments that my son has gotten some sort of special coaching.  It makes me smile.

Nikon D90 with Nikkor 80-200 at 80mm.  1/1600s at f/4.5, ISO100, Landscape mode.  In Lightroom, increased contrast, vibrance and saturation then sharpened.

More about Swimming

I am in Denver today.  Oddly, its hotter here than at my home in Houston.  Fitfull sleep last night and another full day and evening ahead.

Today’s photo is of the sweetest, most beautiful swimmer in our family.  She has improved dramatically from last year but as a 7-year old, she is being dominated by the 8-year olds.  Her best finish was 7th in the breast stroke.  This year, she is more serious about swimming and I think she will break out next year if she can develop a little more strength.  That means not being picky at dinner, ok sweetheart?

After seeing the times posted for all events, in the three strokes he swam, my son had the top times not just for the 7/8’s but for the 9/10s.  He won butterfly by 14 seconds, back by 6 seconds and breast by 10 seconds.  He shaved half a second off each stroke.

Nikon D90 with 80-200 at 200mm.  1/2000s at f/4, ISO100, Landscape mode.  In Lightroom, I cropped, increased vibrance, saturation and contrast, and sharpened.