Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 2003-06-30 tedgrant@shaw.ca (Ted Grant) thoughtfully wrote: > >There's a major difference in shooting the medical profession for a book >where everyone is vertical and moving at normal motion, compared to a >swimmer doing the back stroke at Olympic speed. Particularly with manual >focus 280 or 400 when at one time it was captured Leica sharp as fast as it >was happening. > Boy are you right about this. Few people really understand how FAST elite athletes really are. The only place a vast majority of us see these people is on television when we can only compare them to each other. But in the sports I follow the most: baseball and swimming, the difference in the speed of athletes from what I'd call "competative amateurs" to the elite athlete is astonishing. For the photographer its difficult to practice swimming photography because the swimmers only go really fast maybe twice a year, the rest of the time is intense training. They only go into a taper cycle, trading off strength for endurance before major meets for a period of perhaps 24 days or so. I can watch an elite swimmer compete during their training and while they LOOK faster than the field they are still in the same league. But once they taper down - GASP! The reason? Those brutal training sessions, two or now sometimes three a day plus weights - most of the time they swim very tired. So even a photographer who wants to practice at local meets or regional meets with fast swimmers isn't going to experience what an Olympic Trial caliber meet will give them. Which makes figuring out where/how to focus very difficult. Where will the back stroker roll over for the turn? You sure can't tell during warmup unless you catch them doing sprints early in the day with their coach. So to catch that one instant just as the shoulders begin to turn and they are about to explode into the turn, well there just isn't time. Same for butterfly and breaststroke. It's so incredibly fast and the power is so amazing - a true challenge to convey. As for baseball - unless you follow the game at a variety of levels the pros just spoil us with their speed and accuracy. I have started watching more and more sport at the local level because it reveals how DIFFICULT gymnastics, vollyball, waterpolo and fencing really are. (Hell, local fencing is the only thing I can SEE.) I'm sure the same is true for hockey as well. Thanks for you thoughts, Ted, it's good for me to remember these things, and be reminded of them. Adam Bridge - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html