OAC: Forum Posts

Meet Timers

All about being a Timer at a meet.

Indoor Pool Photography

I thought I would see how many people read the forums. I don't think it is many if any. So here is the link to my new smugmug account. I have two meets uploaded there.

I will upload more 06-07 meets if asked.

Also, you can see what a meet shoot looks like out of my camera. Most of the complete misses (concrete, ceiling, stroke and turn judges shoes, ears, noses, etc...) have been deleted but is it pretty much right from the camera. Also I have allowed all the camera information to be seen on every shot so you can see every how my camera was setup.

www.weswill.smugmug.com

And there is more! Smugmug help has excellent information on how to get the most from your digital images after you download them from your camera.

If you want to buy a print etc... all the prices are at my cost plus $0.01. BUT IF YOU WANT A NICE PRINT contact me before you order!!!

(PS -- If you really want to know why the $0.01 you will have to find the explanation on the smugmug site.)

Indoor Pool Photography

There is probably more than one family that has a new camera this Christmas. Hopefully you did some serious research if you got it to take pictures at indoor swim meets because it is a very challenging environment. If you have your first SLR (digital or film) be ready for allot of learning and bad pictures before you start regularly getting those "poster" shots. Don't expect your new SLR to reliably work in full auto "point and shot" mode at the pool.

I have a little grasp of how to get a SLR to work, without a flash, for indoor swimming shots and I would be willing to share my knowledge and experience if any one is interested.

For your new Canon DSLR a starting point would be: The equivalent setup should work for most any DSLR

Lens of f2.8 or faster. (You can get do some shots with a lens of f4.0)

Camera Settings:
Av Mode - Set your aperture as low as it will go (ie 2.8)
ISO 1600 (3200 if you have it)
Drive - fastest multi shot
Auto Focus (AF) - Servo Mode
White Balance (WB) - Auto

Other tweaks:
Setup a user defined "Picture Style" and set the picture sharpness 2 steps softer than the factory setting. This helps minimize the image noise while shooting at high ISO. Post process the keeper shots by sharpening them in your photo processing software.

Most importantly!!!

Have fun and Practice Practice Practice

Old website stuff

Wes, I think it will be okay to purge. Thanks.

Forum topics

Any interest in finding a Sister team somewhere around the world like Austrialia, Germany, maybe China?

Forum topics

How about a "Save Our Pool" forum. That is still a big problem we face.

Add to personal calendar

Hold on, where's the add to personal calender button?

Forum topics

How about going to your first swim meet. What to bring, what to eat the night before and at the meet, what to expect at the meet.

Add to personal calendar

HA! Are you kidding me? You mean I actually know something about computers? That isn't possible! The "Add to personal calendar" feature is really cool and one I've been using since this website started. You just click the button, and it adds it to your calendar on Microsoft Outlook. You still have to set the reminders- and maybe delete some of the unecessary symbols- but one little click & voila! This is very cool if you are a person who relys on your computer calendar to tell you what is going on in your life! The nice thing about using the computer calendar is you can set reminders up to 1-2 weeks ahead of time & you can color code them by importance/ meaning. Each time you sign on to get your email, Outlook calendar pops open and gives you all your reminders! This is a great way to NOT forget something important.....and a great way to make sure all users of the same computer are on the same page as far as what current family commitments/ schedules are. No more "But you never told me" conversations! :) Unfortunately, on a normal calendar- any written message is only useful if you actually have time/ remember to LOOK at it! Anyway, the only thing I'd like to see changed is that when you click "Add to personal calendar" it would be nice if it came out in a "personal calendar friendly version" -meaning- get rid of all of the weird symbols etc.

Forum topics

I think identification is a small part of it. Mostly I think that it helps everyone feel like part of the team. From the youngest to the most senior. Coaches, swimmers, parents and everyone sees us more of a team. Not a group of individuals with the same cap.

Forum topics

Yesss!!! Now the Coaches can Identify their swimmers with out mixing up others.

Forum topics

Humm do you like the choice of team suit?

Website Update Notification

We hope you make www.oacswim.org your web browser home page or at least one of your Home Page Tabs. But we understand that many people do most of their communication with their cell phone. Because current cell phones are still better at email than web browsing I have been asked if it would be possible to send out email that there is new information on the website.

We could do that, but it would be essentially double the amount information we have to create and send out. Not only would we be writing and sending email we would also be writing and updating the website. During this transition stage, that is essentially what we are doing. As everyone gets more comfortable with the new site and its capabilities the goal is to not have mass emails from the coaches, board etc...

So there could be a number of ways to solve this challenge:

send out a short generic email to notify people to check the site. (This will not let us solve our current email volume problems)
help people set up RSS Feed Readers
setup a "lite" version of the site for mobile browsers
a text message solution?
an IM solution?
other?

I would like to hear what might work best and from there we can explore what it might take to add that to our capabilities.

Forum topics

It's because there is only me here. No one else is replying, so I emailed Bonnie to ask if she'd email everybody else and she did. I wonder if their going to figure out the login thing.

Forum topics

So are there are no swimmers who have idea's? I can't imagine that there is nothing for the forums.

Forum topics

I don't have any idea's. Hi daddy!

Forum topics

Ok so what is interesting to discuss in a forum. Let me know. I'll start forums as people request. Of course lets keep them swimming/club related in one way or another.

Old website stuff

Does anyone want access to past psych sheets and meet time lines etc... I will be starting to clean up/purge old information. Let me know if there are items of interest

Add to personal calendar

I have not been able to figure out what the "add to personal calendar" button is supposed to do. There seems to be a bug in the code someplace. When I get a chance I will do some research on it.