Lara and I swam at the University of Miami pool yesterday. It had been a long time since our last visit, but the scene hasn't really changed. Most of the students still lay around the pool catching rays, and three or four people are in the pool swimming lengths. (I might say that university was nothing like that for me, but it might be more a comment on my age. Or the fact that I went to school in Toronto.) Lara is extremely focused on distance and speed these days ... two things that will help get her through a triathlon next year. I have to admit that years as an underwater photographer have ruined me for any kind of lengths. There is just too much water to look at, too many possibilities to consider. Lengths require me to turn off the creative side of my brain, and water usually has the opposite reaction on me. (How is that for a reason not to swim lengths?) After the workout, we spent some time shooting the details of a body moving through a lane of water. Lara is very patient when it comes stuff like this. She learned long ago that "one more time" has no real meaning to me, even though I say it after every shot. And she patiently continues down the lane as I try to swim in the same space that she is using. Only a swift kick or a hard bump from the housing gets a reaction.
I have been using my AquaTech housing for these images. The thing I really like about this housing is the Canon 580EX strobe underwater. It permits great things like second curtain sync on a slow shutter speed, or a hi-speed sync on a 1/2000th of a second shutter speed. This opens up so many ways to capture motion, and control the background. I am anxious to see how far above 1/250th of a second I can get with the Ikelite strobes in my Seacam housing.
