This weekend my daughter (6) competed in her second swim meet. Water has always been a favorite subject of mine, and with a little girl who loves to compete in the pool these meets provide a thousand photo ops, ops that pass almost faster than a shutter. And while I’m still not totally synced to the rhythm of swimming, nor how to best shoot particular stroke styles, this weekend afforded me another opportunity to take some practice shots.

For this meet I grabbed my camera (Digital Rebel XT) and Big Sig (Sigma 80-400mm telescoping lens). It was partly cloudy for the outdoor meet so I kept the shutter speed around 2500 and the ISO at 400. The variable aperture stayed near or at 7.1, which is about as low as Big Sig can go while still giving me clear shots fully telescoped at 400mm.

Here are a few selected detail crops from the meet:

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