A Summer of Swimming

We started the summer with swim lessons (in the evening).  Miss Cindy is "a little different" (Lucy's words) from Ms. Tracey.  They both teach a method called, "Infant Aquatics" (i.e. baby survival swimming lessons), but Miss Cindy's style is more... militaristic?  Is that the right word?  I hate to say it that way.  We've done two summers with Ms. Tracey, but this summer we were with Ms. Cindy due to scheduling issues.
 

Elliot was so, so sad during every lesson.  He would obediently walk over to her, crying the whole way.
 

He'd jump in to the pool toward her... wailing... every time.  She assured me that by the end of the summer, he would be swimming like a fish.



And in the last week or two, I can finally say she was right!



Elliot and Lucy are having a grand time in the pool these days.  They both love jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder or the side of the pool.



They're not doing "fancy jumps" yet--I suspect that will be more next summer and the next after that.  But they love climbing up there and flopping onto their bellies or jumping with "two feet!" to make a big splash in the water.



It is so much fun, swimming with them.  At the beginning of the summer, I read a "tutorial Tuesday" on a blog I enjoy (Light Inspired), and it totally made me want to explore underwater photography.  This blogger's photographs are amazing.  (Check them out here)


They're beautiful, clear, and crisp.  I thought about those images all summer long, and finally last week I got up the last bit of nerve I needed and bought the underwater housing for my camera.



The housing itself seems pretty simple.  It's like a very thick zip lock bag with a hard plastic lens for the camera's lens to nest up against.  It's pretty awkward to use it underwater, but I've read it gets easier with practice.



You're supposed to use a wide angle lens for underwater photography (b/c you can't be very far from your subject... the water itself muddles the picture too much).  So I ordered one to rent for next week.  I'll definitely post those photos after I take them, because they should be better than these.  But for my first time shooting with it, I was happy with these!