2012 Summer Olympics: Men's and Women's Water Polo (combined blog entry)

OK. I admit it, I have fallen behind with the blog posts once again. Even though I am staying up till 2am every night, there is just enough time in the day. But I am trying! In order to save a little time, I am combining the last two water polo games that I have photographed into this one blog entry. And I am just including my favorites picks from the bunch.

Now that I have shot so many water polo matches here in London, I am trying to push myself even harder to find unique shots. Here, at the start of the match, I was shooting the team huddle when I noticed the cool reflection in the pool. So I reframed and shot this differently. I really like the synergy.

Another favorite from the women's match against Italy. This was a tight shot of just the ball in hand, which I cropped in even tighter to make this image.

Goaltender Betsey Armstrong made some excellent stops in this USA win.

Again, trying to shoot differently, this time instead of focusing on the USA offensive player, I prefocused on the Italian goaltender and hoped for a shot. And as luck would have it, I got a nice shot of the ball passing her.

Another fun crowd shot...

The end of the game with all the women, and coaches, congratulating each other on the win.

Last night I shot the mens' game against Hungary. Unfortunately, the Hungarians took it to the USA team and beat them badly. Lets hope for a rematch and better outcome in the days to come! The shot above was taken with the Sigma 15mm fish eye lens and then corrected in Photoshop. When I took this, I was literally one foot from the Olympic rings in the foreground. I actually thought of this shot the night before and made sure to grab the Sigma lens before taking position on the pool deck the following day.

And I handed the camera to a fellow photographer and asked him to shoot an image of me on the deck. (And I was a little freaked out having my image taken with a fish eye lens. Too close and I would look even heavier than I already am!)

I love it when family members make themselves known to us photographers.

Fighting for position in the 2 meter area of the pool.

Tony Azevedo taking a penalty shot...

 and scoring.

Merrill Moses, the US goaltender, looking up at the video replay of a Hungarian goal to see what he might have missed.

The coach calls a timeout to regroup and see if the team can get it together for a comeback.

Jesse Smith taking a shot.

More tough action in the 2 meter area of the pool. This afternoon is the women's semifinals and I hope they can come out strong and take us to a medal round. Go Team USA!