David Ashdown's sports picture diary: Beijing Olympics - Synchronized swimming

(DAVID ASHDOWN)

David Ashdown was in Beijing covering the 2008 Olympic Games

This picture of the Chinese synchronized swimming pair was in the main pool that Michael Phelps got his eight medals. It's a hard sport to get a pleasing picture from. I think it's important to try to get a feeling of symmetry in the picture but one of the problems is you're never certain where they will pop up, or what routine they will be doing, and it only lasts for about four minutes. With the amount of time they're under water or out of position to me - the opportunity for a picture is almost nil. But then you only need one chance hopefully.

Picture taken on a Nikon D3, 500mm lens and a 1.7 tele-converter, aperture F6.7, 1/500th of a second