Swimming Snaps

Some snaps from my daughter's HS swim team can be found here:

http://garyayala.smugmug.com/gallery/753895



(PS- Santa Margarita Catholic High School)

Gary,

She obviously is having a good fight with the water. How did she do?

Would you like to tell us a little about how you approach this picture in terms of any special thoughts you have and your choices.

Asher

Asher-

That is a guy. *LOL* A teammate coming up for air. This is my daughter:

As to my daughter's worth as a competitive swimmer ... mmmh ... she didn't drown during her two years of swimming at SMCHS.

I was a jock, but never swam. What amazed me was the struggle each swimmer must endure. It never really hit me until I looked at the shots from one of Sarah's swim meets. The water is a monster. You have to fight it with every stroke, it drags you down ... pulling at you from every square inch on your body ... and worse of all ... you have to fight it on every breath you breathe ... you have to slow down just to keep going and when you finally break the water for a breath ... every cell screaming from lactic acid ... that breath is half full of water. In track only the air slows you down, in football you have more breaks than action, baseball is a game of concentration ... swimming is a killer ... the water deprives you of the very substance you need most and creates an gravitational environment where every single motion is an effort.

To directly answer your question of "thoughts" ... my approach to her swim meets was to show the effect of water in the race (see above). A different approach then if I shot for a news story, that being a photo highlighting a particular swimmer or team.

Once again swim snaps here:
http://garyayala.smugmug.com/gallery/753895

This is Sarah, my oldest daughter swimming. Water seeped into one of her goggles so she swam the entire race looking like Quasimoto.

Gary Ayala said:

I was a jock, but never swam. What amazed me was the struggle each swimmer must endure. It never really hit me until I looked at the shots from one of Sarah's swim meets. The water is a monster. You have to fight it with every stroke, it drags you down ... pulling at you from every square inch on your body ... and worse of all ... you have to fight it on every breath you breathe ... you have to slow down just to keep going and when you finally break the water for a breath ... every cell screaming from lactic acid ... that breath is half full of water. In track only the air slows you down, in football you have more breaks than action, baseball is a game of concentration ... swimming is a killer ... the water deprives you of the very substance you need most and creates an gravitational environment where every single motion is an effort.

Click to expand...

Well I'd have to disagree with you there.. I enjoy swimming and find it much easier then running. You float on the water, and you move forward by pushing against the water. When you stop you're still going forward, with running you fall down when you do that! It's also much less strenuous on your joints and muscles. But then again, I don't do much competitive swimming

But to stay ontopic, I enjoyed your photos! I would like to shoot some swimming in the near future too.
What focal length did you use?

By the way, your daughter is a pretty girl, if you don't mind me saying that..

Jan Luursema said:

Well I'd have to disagree with you there.. I enjoy swimming and find it much easier then running. You float on the water, and you move forward by pushing against the water. When you stop you're still going forward, with running you fall down when you do that! It's also much less strenuous on your joints and muscles. But then again, I don't do much competitive swimming

But to stay ontopic, I enjoyed your photos! I would like to shoot some swimming in the near future too.
What focal length did you use?

By the way, your daughter is a pretty girl, if you don't mind me saying that..

Click to expand...

Jan- I used a Canon 70-200 and the Sigma 50-500 (when the light was favorable). The 50-500 was particularly effective. At 500 I could fill the frame will swimmer's facial expression and at 50 I could capture the entire upper body at the turns. Worked out very well, didn't have to move, change lenses or switch cameras ... just twist the zoom ring.

"... You float on the water..." I can stand, sit or lay on the earth, usually for very very long periods of time without fear of death by drowning or my skin wrinkling up.

"... and you move forward by pushing against the water." When I'm moving on the ground I push against the earth ... since the earth has less give than water I get more "work" for every calorie spend then pushing against water ... water tends to give and escapes between the cracks of my fingers and toes.

"When you stop you're still going forward, with running you fall down when you do that!" When I stop when running, usually I remain standing up ... but yes you are right you can coast while swimming but not while running (unless you're running down a very speep hill ... but that is a painful mode of coasting). I used to swim alot, I'm a Marine Biologist, my swimming was completely different than competitive swimming. Remember in competitive swimming, one does not "coast", like running, you are stroking nonstop throughout the entire race. Coming up for air slows you down ... so you keep your head underwater until your lungs nearly burst to gain every fraction of a second. A swimmer on the team swam her entire 50 yard freestyle race without coming up for air ... even once ... she was tough to shoot.

"It's also much less strenuous on your joints and muscles. But then again, I don't do much competitive swimming." That is very true, the pounding involved in running will giggle your guts and wipe out your knees and feet.

As to Sarah being "pretty", thanks for the compliment (and I don't mind). I will pass your kind words on to her :<)

Gary