Sweet Victory

Last week, Megan and her team mates competed for her school's swim team in the Toronto City Finals for swimming. She came in first place for her event. This was her redemption for the heart broken result of the same event in 2010, where she stopped, thinking it was a false start but wasn't. This makes her victory extra special.

Megan is an agile swimmer.  She has consistently won first place in most events for the local swim meets. It's a feast for the eye to watch her swim, especially in a competition.  But victory does not come easy without hard work. We enrolled the kids in the swim program as well as the swim team in the local community centre very early on.  For many years, they practice twice a week in the local swim team, and sometimes, an extra day for the swim program. It takes dedication and perseverance, both for the parents and the kids.

There are lots of benefits for enrolling the kids in local community events. Kids get to interact, compete, and collaborate with others. They get to learn about sportsmanship and to experience both victory and failure.  Most importantly, they learn to set goals and how to achieve them.  Both Megan and Dillon have taken extra courses related to jobs offered by the city for youth, especially courses offered by the Life Saving Society to become a lifeguard.  Megan is still too young to work, but Dillon has been working with the city for the last two years in various jobs.  Early this year he completed the necessary courses and is now fully certified as a member of the Canadian Lifesaving Society and he was offered a job as a lifeguard this summer for the city.  The jobs teach the kids about responsibilities, time management (school and work), money management (what to do with the money earned), and self-esteem.  The benefits are enormous and the experience builds a good foundation for future career and life skills.

Megan - Olympus E-M5 & Contax S-Planar 60mm f2.8 Makro @ f2.8

Shooting Swimming with Canon EF 135mm f2

Shooting swimming is hard.  For good shots, you need to be in the right position.  I used to be able to go on deck of the pool and shoot straight on as my kids swam toward me, but the staff no longer allow people on the pool deck during competition, so I have to shoot from the side, or from the balcony, which I find very difficult to get shots I like.

For Saturday's swim meet, my choice lens was the EF 200mm f1.8L, which I used on every swim meet, but too bad the lens stopped working.  I had to use the EF 135mm f2, which proved to be too short, especially when my kids are on the other side of the lane.  I shot mostly wide open at f2.  As anyone who has used the EF 135mm f2L lens would know, this is one of the sharpest lens, in the world, and f2 is a working aperture.

For me, at least in the facility of the swim meet, the 135mm focal length is  too short for shooting swimming. 200mm is optimal.  Of course, your situation may be different.

Ryan - Canon 1D Mark III & EF 135mm f2. Click for larger.

Megan - Canon 1D Mark III & EF 135mm f2. Click for larger.

Waiting for turn - Canon 1D Mark III & EF 135mm f2. Click for larger.

Taking a break - Canon 1D Mark III & EF 135mm f2. Click for larger.

Yet Another Swim Meet

On Saturday we went to the kid's swim meet in the Matty Eckler Community Center. Our Jimmy Simpson Dolphins team saw a huge improvement this time over the last meet.  I am especially happy to see Megan won first place for all the events she entered for her age group, including the two team relay events.  Another team member, Jack, also won all first place for the events he entered.  Even William won first place for one of the events.  The hard work of the whole team has paid off.  Couches Beth and Mathew should be very proud.  

I tried the video on the NEX-5 for William's events, who competed in the morning.  The video files are significantly smaller than that of the Canon T2i.  Not sure why.  I do prefer the T2i video though.  Seems to have more clarify than the NEX-5.  Perhaps the compression is higher on the NEX.

William after the event -- NEX-5 & Carl Zeiss HFT 50mm f1.4 @ f1.4. Click to see larger.

So far, I am quite happy with NEX-5, especially in the high ISO department.  This picture above was shot at ISO 1000 and as you can see, it's quite clean.  I am also enamoured with the Carl Zeiss HFT 50mm f1.4 lens in Rollei mount.  It's in my possession for a number of years, but it could not focus to infinity with the Canon adapters I have tried, so it didn't see much use.  I would preferred to use it in full frame, but it works wonderfully with NEX.

For sports photos, the big 1D IIn and the EF 200mm f1.8L combo is still my favourite.  I have come to accept ISO 1600 on the 1D IIn, even though I don't like noisy pictures, but having noisy pictures is better than not having any pictures.

Butterfly -- 1D IIn & EF 200mm f1.8 @ f2. Click to see larger.

Butterfly -- 1D IIn & EF 200mm f1.8 @ f2. click to see larger.

Swim Meet Winter 2010

We have always emphasized that swimming is one of the the life skills that everyone should have, not to mention the benefits of whole body exercise when swimming.  Consequently, all of our kids go to local community swimming classes.  Classes are run through out the year.  Megan and Dillon have already finished all the levels and are now training to be a life guard, which will take years.  The life guard courses teach life saving skills (CPR, among others) and technique not found in regular swimming classes. These classes are typically very long and sometimes last up to three hours per session.  So, unless your kids really want to do it, it's not for everyone.

Initially, all our kids resisted swimming, but after a while, they started to enjoy it.  It's important to start when they are very young, and be persistent when they first start, and don't give up.

If swimming classes are not enough, one can joint the community swim teams. Swim team training normally runs longer than normal swimming classes and is more rigorous. The swim teams compete with other community teams typically twice a year. It's a good opportunity for the kids to learn sportsmanship and team work, as the competitions always have relay event that each team member would participate.

I shot the swimming event with a 1D IIn and 200mm f1.8L again.  Tried the Canon 1.4x converter for the first time with the 200mm f1.8L.  This makes the 200mm lens a 364mm f2.5, when factored in the 1D's 1.3x crop view but the one stop lost of light proved not practical for the very dim lighting of the swimming pool, the shutter speed was just not fast enough for the fast actions with the 1.4x converter.  The image quality is acceptable even wide open at f2.5 with very little loss sharpness.

William -- 1D IIn & EF 200mm f1.8L @ f2.0. Click to enlarge.

Megan -- 1D IIn & EF 200mm f1.8 with 1.4x Wide Open @ f2.5. Click to enlarge.

Ryan -- 1D IIn & EF 200mm f1.8L @ f2. Click to enlarge

Dillon -- 1D IIn & EF 200mm f1.8L @ f1.8. Click to enlarge.

Shooting Swimming with Canon 5D

Let me say this first: Shooting sports with the Canon 5D is like having your soup with chopsticks.  It's not impossible, but there are better alternatives.

My kids had swim meets today but unfortunately I sold my 1D III three weeks ago.  The only camera I have that's capable of focusing relatively fast is the Canon 5D.  I thought of geting the 1D II again, but thought better of it in the end.  So, with no choice, but to shoot the events with the 5D.

Lighting in community centres are usually horrid.  This one is no exception, although it's already better than some.  Shooting at ISO 1600 @ f1.8 with my EF 200mm f1.8L would give me somewhere between 1/250s to 1/400s.  The real issue is slow frames per second and very small buffer.  Focusing accuracy on the 5D is actually excellent.  In the bursts of frames, the critical frame always seems to be between one of those three frames each second, darn it!  It's a far cry from the 10 frames per second of my now gone 1D III, or the 8 fps 1D II.  Since I always shoot RAW, no exceptions, this makes the buffer smaller still and also making buffer clearing much longer.  For this reason, keeper are relatively few.

In the end, there are few usable frames so I didn't feel too bad.  However, I am dreaming of a 1D Mark IV...