Brittany Friese of NFA swims underwater during practice at the high school in Newburgh, NY on Friday, August 31, 2012. She is the two-time defending NY State champion in the 200 and 500 freestyle. © CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Yesterday I had an assignment to photograph the Newburgh Free Academy (NFA) Girls Swimming team. At 7:30AM. Fortunately I know the coach and a few of the their premiere athletes, like senior Brittany Friese (above) who already was a state champion as an eighth grader I believe. Same as my coverage in previous years at the school in covering track, football and of course basketball. For the two hour practice I’d installed three remote camera strobes around the pool to “help” the ambient light a little. Since it was a practice I had full reign around the pool and could change lenses, walk the length of the pool to follow the swimmers during their different routines. I thought this image kind of worked well, as they had to swim the length of the pool underwater with the help of small flippers. I know it’s not Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte competing or practicing in London, Athens, Barcelona or LA, but I briefly thought how nice an image like this would’ve looked made in one of those Olympic pools with glass windows for photographers under the surface… ~cg.
Chet Gordon resides in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. A photojournalist for more than 25 years, he recently worked as Westchester Magazine's first photo editor, and previously was a staff photographer at four NYC metro area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the NY Daily News for 5 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, MailOnline (UK), Army Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Popular Photography magazines, among others. He is a career member of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), and a former board member of the NY Press Photographer’s Association (NYPPA). He served honorably as a U.S. Marine in the mid-1980's, including 2+ years stationed on Okinawa, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia. A longtime volunteer and travel enthusiast, he accompanies several humanitarian aid clients on their international disaster relief and medical missions. Since 1997, he's worked in several African countries, the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, the Russian Federation, and Thailand. He routinely mentors young photographers looking to break into the industry and vacations in Bermuda and Kenya.
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