Decisions

I was asked if I still use my Nikon D50.  I do.  It is simpler than my D90 but it produces excellent images.  This photo is a good example.  It was taken with the 12-24 lens, indoors, at ISO800.

Right after a swim, my son returned to the team area and was obviously hungry.  He opened the cooler and took out the strawberries.  I watched him grapple with a decision: should he eat the healthy strawberry or dart off and get some ice cream like all the other kids were doing?  I didn’t say anything but let him grapple and he ended up eating the strawberry.

He ate a couple more strawberries and some grapes, then he looked at me and said, “Dad, after the meet can we go to Brewsters (a gourmet icecream shop).”   I still smile at this memory.  Yep…we went to Brewsters.

Nikon D50 with Tokina 12-24 at 24mm.  1/100s at f/5, ISO800, Portrait Mode.  In Lightroom, increased lights and vibrance.  Toned down clarity and saturation.  Added noise reduction and cropped.  Most of the time, I crop first and then do my adjustments but sometimes it takes doing the adjustments before the crop makes sense.

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.

Swimmer Portrait

This is a portrait of one of the stud 9-year old boys on the team.  He is a good swimmer and an even better soccer player (half English).  At Divisionals, we had to setup outdoors so a lot of people brought their own tents in addition to the swim team tents.  This tent was setup with sheets around three sides, like a pavillion.  The back sheet was white and the light was streaming through it.  Inside the tent, the light was very even and I knew I had to get a photo.

The exposure was a little tricky because the strong backlighting would have put the boy in silhouette.  I accepted that the back would need to be blown out a bit but I thought it would give the image a sort of high-key effect.  The pose was spontaneous, the boy turned and smiled when I called his name.

In Lightroom,  I evened out the light a bit, controlling the bright back light and bringing up the skin tones by increasing brightness and recovery.  His eyes already looked good but I wanted them to pop, so I used the adjustment brush to brighten the reflections.  I added vibrance and took the saturation down.  With split toning, I introduced more blue into the bright areas which softened the whiteness and added sepia to the shadow, making his skintone more even.  I applied mask sharpening and then noise reduction to make the overall image smoother.  It prints very nicely as an 8×10.

I had one shot with wonderful light.  Luckily, it turned out well.  Nikon D90 with Sigma 24-70 at 70mm.  1/1600s at f/4, ISO200, Portrait Mode.

You don’t scare me

I actually came close to taking non-swimming photos this weekend but…

Random photos at the Divisional swim meet.  Her back says, “You don’t scare me.  I have 4 brothers (ages 22, 20, 18,16)”  She is a cute girl and a very good swimmer, so I guess she stirred the interest of the 13/14 boys.  It was a very busy meet and I only had time for a few candids.

One more week of swim team and then its over.  We took second at divisionals.  It was a see-saw battle all day and we were edged out by 5 points.  My son did well, bringing home 5 golds.  My daughter had a 13th.  She was thrilled: the ribbon was lavender.  We had the team party Sunday and all of it was a lot of work.

This weekend I had another milestone: I had to disqualify my daughter in the butterfly.  It was hard.  I ignored the first infraction but on the second one, the other ref was looking at me with a “are you going to call that?”  and finally, she did it a third time and I called it.  All the refs have had that dubious distinction and a couple told me not to worry about it but…I still feel guilty.  Even my wife told me it was the right call.  My daughter didn’t seem to upset, though, she made a pouty face when she realized it had been me.  Then, she smiled, gave me a hug and asked me for $5.  I gave it to her.  Sigh…manipulated again.

Next weekend is the big meet: Ponderosa; the best of the best and then it will be over.

Nikon D90 with Sigma 24-70 at 56mm.  1/30s at f/4, ISO400.  In Lightroom, cropped and converted to gray.  Adjusted light levels, boosting darker areas and added clarity.  Adding clarity made the words stand out a little more and also sharpened the definition on her muscles.  She is a smaller girl but very good  and a power house.  She is also a dainty, feminine little thing.  With 4 brothers.

Tight Finish

A fan at Summer Thunder cheering her child in a very close race.  She was especially vocal and during the race, she would get physically wrapped up in the event.  I don’t know if her baby won but I think the child is always a winner in mom’s eyes.

Nikon D50 with Tokina 12-24 at 24mm.  1/50s at f/5, ISO 800, Landscape Mode.  In Lightroom, I cropped to frame the woman better.  I adjusted light levels, added clarity and vibrance.  The vibrance adjustment is similar to saturation but it is more subtle and easier to use.  It lets me bring out the blue in the pool water.

The Tokina 12-24 was purchased for architecture and landscapes but I am learning how to use it indoors.  I take few photos of swimmers with it but it is fun for capturing atmosphere shots.

Ready Bench

I think one of the hardest jobs on swim team is the Ready Bench, where the kids are lined up in anticipation of marching onto the swim deck.  At the Pentathalon event last weekend, the Ready Bench was in an area lit by large windows.  Morning sun was streaming in and I snapped this photo from the observation area above.

Nikon D50 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8.  1/640s at f/7.1, ISO800, Landscape mode.  In Lightroom, converted to grayscale, adjusted light levels, applied noise reduction and sharpened.  Black and white photography is about light.  I liked the contrasts created by the shadows and skintones.  Even at 1/640s, there is a feeling of movement in the photo.

A Terrible Feeling

It has been a long weekend.  Last weekend was a long weekend.  Its taken its toll on all of us and no one more than my son.  The asthma attacks are more frequent now.  It is hard to imagine how he can be so healthy one moment and so debilatated the next.  I think he may need rest; I know I do.  Everyone is tired.

This was taken yesterday in the third leg of the IM when the attack hit.  Today, it hit in the first leg of the finals.  He would have finished somewhere in the top-8 but he stopped.  The crowd started cheering for him.  They would not let up and he continued.  When he finished, the natatorium erupted.  He heard none of it.  I had him out of the water and I had to keep him from crying because that makes things worse.  In a few seconds, his breathing was almost back to normal.

People walk up and say things, nice things, encouraging things.  His coach hugged him and told him she does not know where it comes from: his will to finish.  I don’t know either.  I don’t care.  I want it over.  No more asthma attacks.  Just let him be normal.

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.