6.18.2011

What to do when the mercury hits 105. Get shooting.

Rollingwood swimmers go round and round in the baby pool at Barton Creek Country Club to stay cool while waiting for their events at the swim meet.


It was very, very hot yesterday.  There was no breeze.  The glare off the water was not helpful.  But the cameras kept working, the kids kept swimming, the parents kept timing and judging and the staff manned the full bars.  Ah, a Texas swim meet among the captains of industry in the citadel of privilege.

Two 60D's.  One with an 18-55 kit lens and the other with the 70-300 IS.  Nice and light.  Cheap enough to be splashed without panic.

6 comments:

Aaron said...

Ugghh. I was shooting in Austin this week and I don't know how you guys manage in such heat.

What to do when the mercury hits 105? Get shooting...indoors with AC! ;-)

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

Hey Aaron, Hard to shoot some of these swim meets indoors. Just looked at the thermometer this afternoon and by 3:30pm it was already 105 in the shade around here. My plan today is to nap on the couch......

If we have to shoot we wear the right stuff, carry umbrellas to hold overhead when not shooting and drink any clear beverage we can find, pretty much continuously. This is a bizarre summer. We rarely have a week of triple digits in June.

Bold Photography said...

I was shooting around my local pool, just a few miles from yours, with my 5DII, 135L and a CPL in front... no worries about glare off the water! :-)

This morning, I was transported to another world - the butterfly museum in Houston is kept in the low 90's, but with nearly 100% humidity for the 'rain forest' experience. I much prefer the dryer Austin air, even if it did indeed hit 105F today.

We may even go to the pool tomorrow morning, depending on what time we get up!

Robert said...

I think you are lucky, with the exception of the humidity. I got used to the heat, and it is cold here for my taste, with the high reaching 77 on Sunday.

Reflexdoc said...

This is a strange year indeed. Here in Washington we're still snow skiing, yes I said snow not water. Our high today will be in the 50's. Yesterday was worse due to 24 hours of rain. I wanted to go out shooting but don't like taking my camera gear out in a downpour just for recreational photography.

This is by far the best photography blog on the web. Thank you Kirk for giving us regular doses of thoughts to chew on.

Andreas Sikkema said...

Funny how different our local (Dutch) swim culture is (was?) when I was around these kids age.

Swim meets were between clubs, independent of schools and were always during the "winter" months when the indoor pools were open. We hated it when outdoor pools were used for competition at the start or end of the season because it would always be raining and/or a strong wind blowing. We were in a pool on these occasions to stay warm.

I had to reread the text under the picture twice before I understood the keeping cool part ;-)

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Andreas