For the past 11 years I’ve received photographer credentials for the annual Santa Clara Arena Pro Swim series, the last major swim meet leading up to the U.S. Nationals, under the auspices of USA Swimming. I’ve generally shot these for Swimming World magazine.
You don’t get a chance to yak it up at length with these world-class Olympic athletes — after all, they’re there to compete — but it’s been fun to exchange a few words with Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte and some of the other swimming greats. If you watch the Olympics, you’ll be familiar with many of these names. Here are some of my favorite shots:
I don’t have the heavy-duty equipment of the photographers shooting for the Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters or San Jose Mercury News, but my Canon 5D Mark III with a Canon 70-200mm telephoto lens gets me by.
For a complete look, here are my swim meet photo galleries on Flickr:
- 2007 & 2008 Santa Clara swim meets with Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Tara and Dana Kirk, Brendan Hansen, Amanda Beard, Rebecca Soni, Brent Hayden
- 2009 Santa Clara swim meet with Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Dana Vollmer, Laura Sogar, Summer Sanders
- 2010 Santa Clara swim meet with Ryan Lochte, Dana Vollmer, Laura Sogar, Elizabeth Beisel
- 2011 Santa Clara swim meet with Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Natalie Coughlin, Stephanie Rice, Brendan Hansen, Dana Vollmer, Taehwan Park, Elizabeth Beisel
- 2012 Santa Clara swim meet with Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Stephanie Rice, Dana Vollmer, Scott Clary, Bronte Baratt
- 2013 Santa Clara swim meet with Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Matt Grevers, Jessica Hardy, Cullen Jones, Connor Jaeger, Dana Vollmer, Elizabeth Pelton, Aaron Piersol
- 2014 Santa Clara swim meet with Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, Chase Kalisz, Connor Jaeger, Elizabeth Biesel, Laura Sogar
- 2015 Santa Clara swim meet with Tyler Clary, Laura Sogar, Rowdy Gaines
- 2016 Santa Clara swim meet with Nathan Adrian, Maya DiRado, Josh Prenot, Tom Shields, Anthony Ervin, Emily Seabohm. Ryan Murphy, Jessica Hardy, Sun Yang and Emma McKeon
- 2017 Santa Clara swim meet with Nathan Adrian, Katie Ledecky, Conor Dwyer, Tom Shields, Abbey Weitzel, Kevin Cordes
