Water Hijinks

My #2 son’s wet self-portrait, taken in our swimming pool

My #2 son and I got into our backyard swimming pool for the first time this spring last weekend. He carried a big frisbee to play with, while I toted my Olympus Stylus Tough 6000, a sturdy camera that’s not afraid of water. Which comes in handy when you’re in a pool.

The serious underwater side of #2

Both of us had a great time using the Olympus. #2 had several self-absorbed moments when he felt compelled to take his self-portrait underwater (and did a great job!). Then the Mister climbed into the pool, and I took over the point and shoot.

#2 jumps high to snare the frisbee.

As the Mister threw the frisbee high into the air for the leaping #2 , I tried to photographically capture the outcome.

#2 flies through the air with the greatest of ease!

Of course, a point and shoot camera can never stop the action like a digital SLR. But I put the Olympus on its sport setting and worked on my timing, which means snapping the pic well before the action’s peak.

All that triple jump practice comes in handy!

#2 had a blast jumping off the spa and trying to corral the frisbee thrown by his dad before dropping into the pool.

Got air?

And I had just about as much fun capturing all his water hijinks!

Fearless Photography

The #2 son waves . . . underwater!

Usually I’m nervous when my camera equipment gets around water. I always worry that my Nikon D300 and expensive lens of choice will get splashed or even worse . . . horrors of horrors . . . fall in and be ruined.

But now not only am I not anxious about my camera getting wet, I can deliberately put it in the water and take photos! And the picture quality is pretty good. That’s because I have the Olympus Stylus Tough-6000, a point and shoot that allows you to snap pix as deep as 10 feet underwater.

Not the cleanest environment for #2's self-portrait

Sidebar: I made the in-hindsight poor decision to turn on the waterfall, because I wanted to take the following photos of the water streaming off the rocks. Unfortunately, that meant that all the leaves and junk in the waterfall came out into the pool. Thus the junk in the above photo of the #2 son, which he took.

The Olympus works well in and out of the water.

Another waterfall shot

Using the underwater setting (there actually are three) for photos that are taken out of water results in very saturated colors, as you can see. It’s not unpleasant, though.

#2's handstand underwater

The white balance looks a little weird to me, but I guess that’s the actual color of the light underwater.

Feet up!

Here are those overly saturated colors again, as I used the underwater setting on a photo taken out of the water. That’s what happens when you have a lazy photographer who doesn’t want to move the dial!

Who lurks behind the mom in the pool?!?

The best part of using the Olympus with the #2 son was all the fun we had together! We laughed so much as we tried to take these photos.

The dynamic duo underwater

Mom and son together making memories. On a hot summer day in the backyard pool with a camera that can go anywhere, it doesn’t get much better! It’s great being a fearless photographer!!