Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

The SMNE Summer Championships were a blast. There were lots of records and some great photos which were helped along by a new faster, sharper 300mm lens. It was difficult to choose but here are a few favourites. You can view the entire set here   on my swim photos website.

Because my Flash based website is just SO slow, I decided to launch a new website with Photoshelter to handle the large number of orders coming in for swim action photo's from various meets.  So far, so good. There are a couple of improvements that I would like to see made in the near future but on the whole, I'm pretty impressed. Thank you to all my clients who happily gave me feedback regarding the previous site. It helps to know when you're doing something wrong as well as when you get it right! Here is the link to the new site. It is also available from the splash page on www.ninabeilby.com .

The start of the short course season brings groups of swimmers from around the area aiming to make personal best times for State and Metro which are only weeks away. For me it meant the first time using my Canon Mark IV. I had a few adjustments to make but then got the hang of the amazing rapid fire...a far sight quicker than the Mark II. In addition to the 10 fps, I liked the extra zoom. The 300mm lens is just too bulky for me so it's a nice compromise to stick the 70-200mm on the 1.3x sensor. The lighting at SOPAC is all but non existent. At one stage I was feeling ready to sleep it was that dark. Around 12800 ISO dark. These challenges are sent to try us!

Matthew Abood....Intense Focus SMNE (Sydney Metro North East) hosted it's popular Summer Sprint Qualifying Meet, this past weekend. A District meet attended by 9 year olds upwards who are here with the hope of making some personal best times and to get in some race practice before the upcoming school swim carnivals.  To the delight of these swimmers and spectators, also here to race were Olympians and Australian Champions, Eamon Sullivan, Geoff Huegill, Matt Abood & Andrew Abood.  The focus and preparation was intense. You can see Matt running the race through his head stroke by stroke. I had briefly met Matt at Lane Cove Swim Club' s recent 50th birthday celebrations. He is a kind and gracious man taking time out in between races to sign the T-shirts of all the awestruck kids. Eamon Sullivan getting ready to race. The crowd gathers to watch the 100m Free Andrew Abood Abood Brothers before the 50m Free Geoff Huegill preparing for the 50m

Swim photography is not just about capturing the strokes, although that is fun too. For me, I like to capture moments inside and outside the pool. The tension as a team mate is swimming a close race. Sheer joy or occasionally disappointment after a tough swim. This weekend, I am the official photographer for the SMNE Speedo Sprints. A big challenge because it is an indoor venue and the light is low.  Sometimes the swimmers didn't breathe, especially in the 50's. Other times they breathed away from me.  There were no breaks. Just 8 hours of walking around the pool taking shots. I don't really have a sports camera, so I had to rely on timing. My 200mm lens meant that I could only shoot 4 lanes...I really needed two of me! My memory cards filled up quickly, (approx 40GB) even with reviewing and deleting. I was able to download a card on to my portable hard drive whilst I filled the next card but I was nervous deleting the images from the card so that I cou

The Team Photograph... Clubs large and small like the team image for their websites and to display at their pool because it demonstrates professionalism, unity and team spirit as in this example of the Oregon City Swim Team, USA . When you swim 6 to 9 times a week, 2 hours each time, your teammates become like family and that's why the kids love to get a print of the team as well. The Swim Portrait... Swim portraits are great because the kids get a chance to look dry and glamorous poolside instead of dripping wet for a change! Action Shots... ...then they can also do some cool action shots as well. Memory Mate Prints... ...or combine the two onto a memory mate print... You can view more images on my website . For more information, or to schedule your team shoot, you are welcome to call or email me anytime!

I had this shot in my head for weeks. Finally I had ten minutes to shoot it and I was extremely happy with the results. Firstly, I started out with my non-swimmer to test lighting and angles. I used two 1600 Alien Bees with strip modifiers. The subject was placed in exactly the right position to let enough light define both edges w little or no definition through the middle. Then when my real swimmer was around, I shot him. I am excited about marketing these images in my upcoming material. This is my test subject... Here is my real swimmer!