Ideas for identifying pictures - swim meets and other events

[Terry Zorich]

Wouldn't it take longer to add the metadata than it would take to simply drag the file to the desired folder? Basically, if you have time to add metadata to a file using software, you probably have time to just manually put those files where you want them. What am I missing?

I have never thought swimming would be a moneymaker. The only way to do it on spec (IMO) would be with one camera per lane (maybe triggered remotely). Pre-sales (shoot one swimmer per heat) would be the other approach, but it would take some focused marketing and would probably require a few events with little or no sales to set up for a successful day.

Is anyone shooting swimming with success?

[TonyPanzica]

I have shot several swim meets. Depending on the timers and clock operators you only have about 30 seconds to 1 minute between races. What I do is keep track of the event #s and heat #s. Have a pad of paper ready with all the Event and Heat #s writen on it. Just take a quick photo of it. Create folders for each of the Events and heats if you like. Just drag those photos into their folders while you are editing.
The real challenge in shooting a swim meet is trying to get all the swimmers for each race. As the kids get older, they swim a lot faster. Usually the older swimmers dont want photos anyway. Larry, I do understand what you are tryoing to do, but while you are shooting from lane to lane to lane, you really dont have time to take your eye off of the camera. Unless you are shooting 7-8 year olds. Once they get to 10 an older you time to shoot is much less. Especially shooting breast and fly. I dont shoot swim meets any more, except for my daughter HS team. Its just not worth it. The best thing to do is to pre-sell and only shoot those kids. Again it will depend on the age and speed as to how many kids you can get quality photos of in each race.

You will get great shots with a 300, I mean great shots. Remember to shoot at a higher ISO and shoot minimum 1/2000 sec. The "boiling" water is pretty cool. Check out my photo on front page of my site. ActionPhotos.net
They do make great portfolio images.
Good luck...