I am currently enjoying a break from the horrible, soul-destroying and mental debilitating heat of Southeast Texas here in balmy Southern California, and the only words that can suitably describe it come from a hymn, "... and oh the joy that floods my soul ..." I wake up in the morning, and the room is chilly, the skies are overcast with the marine layer which burns off around 10 am. All I need every now and then is a fan or a breeze but that is about that. The evenings are cool, the grass luscious, and I can walk barefoot without worrying about being bitten by those dreaded imports from South America, fire ants!
The plane landed without incident and the same evening my nephews had a swim meet they were going to participate in at the local community college. Being the photographer in the family, I volunteered to take some "nice pictures" of the boys with a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS Canon lens. Admittedly, while it was a fast lens, it wasn't long enough to do the job, but I wasn't about to schlep a longer lens to California for one event.
The swim meet (aka a gala to the rest of the world) was held at 5.30 pm. The sun was starting to sink in west giving me some incredible quality light, BUT shadows were a problem. There were no overhead lights, but the light was reflecting off the water, off of the concrete around the pool, off of the concrete walls and stands, so it was a nightmare to balance shadow and light. I am sure that I could've set up a number of strobes at one end of the pool, but again, I had just got off a plane and this supposed to be a vacation.
I put a 77mm circular polarizer on to cut back on specular highlights from the water and glare from the concrete, used a low ISO, set my aperture for f/8 and adjusted the time accordingly. However, I didn't adjust for highlights, but stopped down 1/2 stop, so that I didn't blow out highlights knowing that I could safely use Lightroom to make a few "fill light", "contrast", as well as "color temperature" adjustments in post processing. I had eight opportunities to perfect my skill. Both of the boys had to swim all four strokes: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly. Being a product photographer, I didn't know (my manual was at the house - at least I brought it with me) where on the camera I was supposed to make the change to Al Servo etc, but I did ensure that I took multiple frames. I pre-focused, the buzzer sounded, the boys dived and before I knew it, the 50 yards were over.
It was intense! If you miss a shot, there is no going back. There is no redo, no stopping the swim meet. If your shot is not focussed or your mind wandered for a second, you can miss that perfect shot. The sports photographer can never rest. I have a new appreciation for men and women such as
Brad Mangin whose work appears in Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and a host of other news outlets. Yes, they earn the big bucks if they get the picture, but if they don't, they go hungry.
If you have a favourite sports photographer, please drop me a line and let me know about them.
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