Sports photography - Swimming tournament

The annual swimming tournament of the Schwimmklub Kaiseraugst was a good opportunity to do some sports photography.
An afternoon of swimming. All kinds of disciplines and different age categories.

The event took place at the indoor swimming pool of the Liebrüti complex in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland.

What I knew from past experience was, that light conditions would be a challenge. The artificial light is rather low and in the afternoon the sun would shine in a flat angle directly in direction of the swimming lanes.

Taking pictures of competitive swimmers is difficult. First of all during a race they are underwater most of the time. It's a lot about timing, to find the right moment for an action packed, sharp and clear, but still well composed and exposed picture. Second, the light conditions. The water surface is reflecting a lot of light, while the room itself is not very well illuminated.

Choice of equipment:

Sports photography in difficult light conditions needs a camera which is fast, offers a sophisticated auto focus, and excellent low light performance. Given by the topography of a 4 lane 25 meter indoor pool it is also required to take pictures from a distance. 

The perfect choice for these requirements was my Nikon D4 at ISO 1'000 using the 70-200 mm f2.8 lens. For some of the pictures I was also using the flash.

Here is what I did to document the tournament.

The environment:
I took pictures of what was happening around the event. Viewers taking movies with their smart phones, viewers concentrated on the race, coaches talking to their athletes, swimmers taking a break or just enjoying the event.
And in the very end of the event the victory ceremonies.

The race:
Concentrated athletes, the dynamics of the start, water splashes, a swimmer taking a breath between two strokes. - For the first time I noticed the power of the D4's 3d tracking auto focus as well as the high speed image rate of 11 pictures per second. The tools to capture the very right moment. Once I would trust in the reliability of this technology I could entirely focus on the right timing. Which is already challenging enough. Since the moments interesting for photographs only last few fractions of a second.

Below the surface:
Most fun was taking pictures using my underwater camera setup. The stup consists of a Nikon D800 with 16 mm f2.8 fisheye lens in Hugyfot housing and twin Inon z240 type 4 strobes.

In order not to disturb themswimmers during their competition I only took underwater pictures during warm up but not during the actual race kneeling at the pool's edge and holding the camera into the water blindly shooting pictures whenever a swimmer was in reach.

It is a completely different perspective and opens a new - from above the surface completely hidden - dimension. I got some spectacular shots from swimmers diving below the surface when jumping in from the starting block. But also during the underwater floating phase when approaching the finish or a turn.

Using the fisheye lens as described above it is easy to shoot images which will contain the intended object without consulting the view finder. However, given the high speed of swimmers crossing and given the wide angle blind image composition becomes difficult.

Find the results at www.andreasrmueller.com.
- Above surface
- Below surface