Swimming

Cold water photography

At the outset of 2020, when COVID closed my local pool, I started to consider ocean swimming as an alternative to indoor swimming. I love being in the water and missed the exercise. In fact, I have always preferred open-water swimming over swimming in a pool. Given the extremely low ocean temperatures here, it took me a little while to acquire the experience and equipment needed to be able to open-water swim for a couple of kilometers. Now, I swim year round, wearing neoprene in the ocean, and just my skin for Summer lake swims.

One thing I missed while swimming is the ability to make photos. I have been taking photos from my kayak for years, which is a relatively simple exercise. Bringing a camera along while swimming is somewhat more difficult. However, there are times that I sacrifice swimming any distance for the ability to make photos.

Here are some images captured while swimming in the ocean off of Victoria. The first group of photos were made this February. The second group is a mix of different locations, including one from late summer, off of Salt Spring Island. I will continue taking a camera with me on the occasional swim, as I love the perspective from water level or just below.

NB: Most of these images were captured with a Fujifilm X100F in a Sea Frog underwater housing. At least one image was captured with the Fujifilm XF10.