FINA 2014

I had the good fortune of being one of the official photographers for the FINA (Fédération International de la Natation) Masters championships that were held in Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal in late July and early August 2014.  FINA is the international governing body for the aquatic sports of synchronized swimming, diving, open water swimming, swimming, and water polo.  I love shooting sports and will take any opportunity to spend two weeks doing so.  When this came along there was no way I was going to pass it up.  Definitely worth the sunburns!I've had the chance to photograph many elite-level sports before, but this was the first time I was able to shoot any aquatic sports at this level.  The first challenge, of course, was learning each sport on the fly.  Water polo was pretty quick for me to pick up.  I just used the same strategy as soccer: follow the ball and shoot anyone that comes close to it.  Diving was easy to follow, but the real challenge was synchronized swimming.  Usually when I shoot a sport I try to predict where my next shot will be by watching the play. With a performance-based sport like synchro, the only person who has any idea what's coming up is the swimmer.  Despite my lack of experience, I was able to come away with some pretty good shots (I would certainly hope so, as I spent 4 straight days shooting synchro).So without further ado, let me present a gallery of my favourite sports shots from the 2-week event.  I've included all of the Photos Of The Day that I posted on Facebook during the competition, with the exception of the duck (take a look at the Facebook page, you'll see what I'm talking about).