SEC Swimming & Diving

Auburn's Tyler McGill, and George Klein, right, celebrate after they win the 400 yard medley relay during the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at Gabrielsen Natatorium at the University of Georgia on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 in Athens, Ga.

The SEC's Swimming & Diving Championships were held on my birthday.

I got soaked.

Little did i know that the bulkhead at the end of the lane would be walked on by every athlete. So my pants & shoes got soaked fast. I suppose shorts and flip-flops would have been a better choice.

More after the jump



When you only have one evening to try and get killer photos of something that your sports department generally chooses to ignore, you have to pick your moments. Since i was only covering the finals, Ive got 2 races for each event. The B race is a consolation final which causes points to go for the team score. Gives an opportunity to get people cheering or something unusual, a different vantage point or the whatnot.

The "A" race is the final and depending on the event, you want to be either looking straight down the lane - butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke - or perpendicular - like with freestyle. The other consideration is THE FLAGS. Those flags are there during backstrokes to tell the swimmer how far from the wall they are. So when there are there and you're shooting long, you have to kneel down to keep them out of the shot. During normal races, these are moved out of the way for the television cameras to a point that makes it that you have to stand to get the shot.

Slightly more unnerving is the bulkhead, a nice 3 foot wide steel plank that is surrounded by water on both sides while you have roughly 10 grand in camera gear on your body. Only slipped once.

I threw a remote to cover lane 4 & 5 from over the scorers table in case of insane jube but there wasn't any. Lanes 4 & 5 are where the fastest swimmers swim, so thats where your winners more than likely will be. Alas no one really celebrated.

All in all, for a sport i rarely shoot, i got good stuff. Nothing hugely creative.



Georgia's Mark Dylla swims the butterfly leg of the men's 400 yard medley relay during the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at Gabrielsen Natatorium at the University of Georgia on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010.



Georgia's Allison Schmitt, right, and Morgan Scroggy celebrate after finishing 1-2 in the women's 200 yard freestyle during the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at Gabrielsen Natatorium at the University of Georgia on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010.



Florida's Christopher Crete dives in to the pool during the start of the 400 yard IM during the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at Gabrielsen Natatorium at the University of Georgia on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010.