Photos from last night's swimming competition

The last event that I went to yesterday was swimming, and it was a late one. Since NBC wants to air some of the Olympics live in the US, they are starting many of the events here at 10pm and running them until midnight. Since sleep seems to be unimportant here in Rio, I decided to head over to the swimming venue to get some shots.

There are two shooting positions on the floor of the swim venue. One is by the diving blocks and one is at the other end of the pool. I chose the far position for three reasons:

1. I was bringing a long zoom lens and could get close to the dive if I wanted.
2. I prefer to photograph alongside the swimmers while they are doing their swim.
3. The other position had limitations of entry and exit, which meant that I had to be there early and had to stay for the entire time. I did end up leaving a little early (11:45pm) so it worked out well.

The shot taken above was a wide one where I was attempting to get the swimmer and the Rio2016 logo in the same shot. Good idea, but I was not thrilled with it.

I also took some wide shots of the swimmers and their competitors. Trust me, I can shoot tight shots all the time, but it gets boring if that is all I have to show you all.

Here is one of those tight shots. Don't get me wrong...I love taking these and bringing the viewer close to the action.

The Americans came out for their relay and I got this shot. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the TV crew was in the way. Even though I have top level photography credentials, there is still a pecking order at the Olympics, and NBC and Olympic Broadcasting rule all.

Here is a shot of the ladies celebrating their silver medal. That is Ledecky still in the water, and I think her teammate was saying, "hey, we will take the silver!" The Australians were favored in this event and took the gold.

More tight shots. This time the photos are of Chase Kalisz, who took home a silver medal.

Dana Vollmer swimming the butterfly stroke. This is my favorite stroke to photograph, since the swimmers get out of the water more. Freestyle is very difficult, since these athletes barely breathe and when they do, it is very close to the water.

Case in point.

Here is a photo of Chase showing the medal to his family in the stands. What a great moment.

I took this photo of the other photo position to show you just how many photographers are competing for the same shots. Crazy, right?

I loved photographing Maya DiRado swimming butterfly. Look at her stroke! She comes so high out of the water. Amazing.

And she was rewarded with a silver medal.

She was very happy, as was the gold medal winner

Not only did she win gold, but Katinka Hasszu smashed the world record by almost 2 seconds!

OK - gotta run. I am missing some of the women's beach volleyball. I can't do that!

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