Marking time

[Spam]

Swimming is a great sport, but it's tough on its participants and, sometimes, a bit rough on the parents of its participants. Spending five or six hours sitting on a concrete stand to watch approximately four minutes of your kid's actual heats is mind-numbingly boring. Likewise with the training. Fortunately, photography provides some relief. The coaches and other parents obviously have no problem with me taking pics of my son, but they give me very strange looks when I start photographing the plumbing, the air-conditioning and the empty pool. Comments and criticism would be appreciated.

1. In this league's heats, males and females and different age groups all race together. All that counts is the time.


2. Tea break.


3. Training under an African sky. The glare was something else.


4. The air-con on the classroom building next to the school pool.


5. Seems there were a bunch of birds nesting in the roof of this building.


6.


7. My son toughing out cramp in his calf muscles.#proud_paparazzi_dad.

[madcrow]

Great series of images. Love the first one, sharp with plenty detail and good action. That a fine looking boy you got, must be very proud of him.

[Spam]

Great series of images. Love the first one, sharp with plenty detail and good action. That a fine looking boy you got, must be very proud of him.

Thanks, Maurice. I am very proud of him. He gets his good looks from his mom and grandparents, not me, but he doesn't particularly like anyone taking pics of him (teenagers!) and this one was shot from the bleachers with the zoom at 300mm, hence the paparazzi tag. He'll forgive me posting it, however.

[Mike Buckley]

I keep coming back to the third one, which is magical for me. Everything about the composition so effectively tells the story.

The glare could have been largely solved simply by using a polarizer. Even so, the glare in this case doesn't bother me.

[IzzieK]

I prefer #1 and the shot of your boy, Proud Daddy....

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Spam]

I keep coming back to the third one, which is magical for me. Everything about the composition so effectively tells the story.

The glare could have been largely solved simply by using a polarizer. Even so, the glare in this case doesn't bother me.

Thanks, Mike. I had enough dynamic range in the original RAW image to have pulled the highlights down more, but I quite liked the bleached look.

[Spam]

Nice series.

Thanks, John.

[Mike Buckley]

the bleached look.

Yes! That's the look I was thinking of but was unable to come up with the word that describes it.

[purplehaze]

An impressive set, Simon, but I especially love the one of your son. My kind of portrait.

[Spam]

An impressive set, Simon, but I especially love the one of your son. My kind of portrait.

Thanks, Janis.