Having Fun & Capturing Some Great Moments | davem photography

Every once in a while I shoot for my friends, family and myself. Over the summer I went to a couple swim meets to cheer and support my nephew, Xander. He's a pretty good swimmer and loves the camera.

He's only 5 and in most of his meets he's swimming against 8 year olds and he's placing in the top 3. I get a kick watching how excited he gets when he wins a race. Although I'm only shooting for fun, I get to practice shooting a live sporting event and I've even captured some of my all time favorite images.


At most of Xander's events, it seems like he rolls with his own entourage and paparazzi. At least that's what I believe the other parents think.

Shooting for fun has spurred a ton of ideas that I want to do. Another athletic shoot with a swimmer is one of them, especially after seeing the emotion in the following images.

I found out that Breast and Butterfly Stroke are the best for photo opportunities.

The back Stroke provides another opportunity, but it's not as dramatic as the previous shots.

Freestyle is the more popular event, but it's hard to get a great shot when your head is face down and only for a brief period breaks the surface for air. As I've learned from my own swim training, if done properly, only one side of your head surfaces for air. I'm still determined to work with a swimmer and get some freestyle shots.


All the images were shot at ISO 200 @ f/4. Shutter speed varied from 1/1250 - 1/3200. Since it was so bright early in the morning, I could achieve high shutter speeds to freeze the action. These were all shot with my 70-200mm f/2.8. When viewing these images, I was amazed at the sharpness and crispness in detail. Upgrading to the 7D with it's improved auto focus and its high speed shooting was a worthy upgrade for this type of shooting.

Below is my favorite from all his events. I love the texture in the water. Especially the detail of the water coming from his face and googles.

I loved it so much that I had a 16"x 24" print  made.  I was even more impressed when I received the print. The detail & clarity surpasses what I see on my monitor.

The images on this blog don't even do it justice. Although Megapixels is not a huge factor in choosing a camera these days, having 18 MP allows you the flexibility to crop the image and get a close-up.

I still prefer the non-cropped image because of the composition, the cropped version still retains the clarity and sharpness in detail.

As a photographer, I can sometimes get lost in all the technical aspects of gear, but it's the moments that were captured that actually make these images memorable. Those fleeting moments, some as quick as 1/3200 of a second have been preserved indefinitely. Images that as an Uncle will always take me back to these events. Images that his parents will treasure. Images that Xander will look back on years from now and remind him of his childhood.

As you can tell, he's really enjoying being 5. He's one of my favorite subjects and he'll never be short of images from his youth. Yeah, I'm guilty of being a proud Uncle.

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