I’m still really enjoying my DSLR camera (Nikon D60), and I use it at the slightest provocation. So I can’t claim to have been too upset when, while at my daughter’s first practice swim meet, two people separately came up to me to ask if I would be the team’s photographer. I suppose I was the parent that had the most serious-looking camera.
Although I wasn’t looking to be out in the heat for all that long, I was eager to test my photography skills at the swim meets. I asked a lot of questions about what they expected of me: what kinds of pictures do you want (action shots, pictures of individuals), what are you going to do with them (ready for printing, or just online viewing), how should I provide them for use, etc. I needn’t have been so concerned. Previous years were just a few snapshots, and in fact last year there were no pictures of the meets at all.
Logistically, I set myself up quickly to manage the pictures. I created a new iPhoto library for Glenshire Gators photos, and I have the Picasa account to which I can upload the photos. I thought about trying to annotate the photos with the people in them, but I don’t know any of the team members currently, and I doubt I will be able to recognize them in their swim goggles and swim caps. So I’ll just upload the pictures without annotation, but after I’ve cropped and otherwise cleaned-up the pictures.
It’s been going quite well. I end up with about 100 pictures at each meet, and I’m getting better about what looks good. I like getting shots of swimmers just entering the water, and timing pictures of front crawl where you can see their faces are very dramatic when it turns out. Closely cropping the picture is best, too, so I often am at maximum zoom (12x).
You can see how I’ve done by checking out the Picasa page:
http://picasaweb.google.com/glenshiregators/
Any picture from 2009 is one I’ve taken.