Yeah. Now it's getting hot. So photographs of swimming are just the ticket. Dive in!!!

 

This is the Prince Rainier Memorial Swimming Pool in Monte Carlo. 

We did a corporate show in Monte Carlo for Tivoli Systems. I had most afternoons off 

so I made daily use of the pool for the better part of a week. 

Tip: Always pack a swim suit and goggles in your gear bag.

50 meters. Salt water. Bonus: it's right next to the bay so you 

get to watch all the big yachts come in to dock...

I swim but I also photograph. This is Tyler showing perfect backstroke form 

for an article about how (Olympian) Whitney Hedgepeth coaches backstroke 

for the UT Austin Masters Group. From the UT Swim Center.

Perfect freestyle form...

Ben tearing it up at Emma Long Park. He's brave. He'll swim anywhere there is water.

Valet/personal assistant/social secretary/mom in the background. Carrying all the stuff. 

Contax G2 with a 21mm Zeiss lens. 

Sarah. Post swim. 

For about ten years I was the "official" volunteer photographer for our swim club's summer swim program/team for the kids. "The Rollingwood Waves." I covered every swim meet and made photos to share with all the other parents. I never missed a swim meet with my kid, Ben, participating. 

The parents wrote the kid's events with a Sharpie on the kid's hands. Event # and heat #. That way the parents running the ready bench could tell which event a child was supposed to swim by a quick glance at their hands. The ink generally wore off by itself before the next meet. 

Saturday morning swim meets were a huge social event. With 200+ kids spanning 5 years old to 16 years old there were always groups of same age kids having fun, chilling out with Nintendos together and eating all kinds of brightly colored candy before their events. The parents were required to volunteer and keep the wheels turning. We counted three different gold medal Olympians as coaches during the ten years Ben swam on the Waves.  He did learn his four strokes very well. 

It's always social hour at the swim meets. 

Some kids make friends for life there.

Ben swimming breaststroke at a Saturday morning meet. 

Amazing what you can do with a long, manual focusing lens on a Kodak 

DCS-760 camera. If you anticipate the location and the phase of the stroke.

cheering on the team mates. 

A calmer pool at Balmorhea State Park out near Marfa, Texas.

A wonderful, cool, spring feed pool that's rarely crowded and open late. 

Swim to your heart's content. About a six hour drive from Austin.

Kirk's shoes at Balmorhea Pool. Circa 2010.

Ben coming off a wall at a night time meet. Sony RX10mk2.

He could have tucked those elbows in a little more for a better streamline...

Just sayin.

A swim meet at the country club where the pool is 50 yards from Lake Austin. 

Swim your event then jump off the pier. Unfettered fun for swimmer kids. 

Coach Ben in charge of the six and unders. His incorrigible dad embarrassing him 

by setting up a soft box and an 1800 watt battery-powered flash just to take yet 

another swim photo at the pool. Growing up surrounded by endless competitive swimming.

Is it any wonder that he's now a runner? Kidding a bit; he still swims.

It's Summer in Austin. Most other adults I know and hang out with are somehow connected to swimming. I start every morning with a pool full of them, swimming workouts written and coached by 

a professional coach. Or two. Or three. It's a cool way to start the day.

And, if you are coming home from a location shoot out in the heat it's even better to stop by the pool in the evening and plunge in. It rearranges your brain. And makes you happier.

Ambient temperature today? 98°. Water temp at the pool today? 79°. 

Heavenly.