Wyat Taylor - "Favorite Shot"

This was really hard for me, deciding which picture was my favorite, but I did. This isn't my personal best, or the picture that has the most to it, and the entire rule's and what not. But it’s my favorite because I think it was a very cool way to represent why I got into taking pictures in the first place; to capture the moment, and freeze time. Originally starting with panoramic shots, this is something different, and I’m quite proud of.

What I did was I set it to Av mode, or aperture priority mode, and set the f/stop down to the lowest it could go because of the low light. This pool actually had really nice lighting though.
I put on my telephoto 75 - 300mm, got down at the end of lane, crouched in front of a ton of screaming guys, praying I wouldn't be pushed or knocked over, and I was just was holding the shutter down, and moving the camera with the swimmer.
I ended up cropping the picture to emphasize the action around the swimmer.
What I like is the crispness, and I really appreciate this guy's form cause it's a nice even shot.
If I could change something it'd be to even up the lanes some more. You can see I was to the right a little too much.

Taken on: December 11th, 2008.
Camera: Canon Rebel Xsi
Lense: 75 - 300mm
Mode: Av (Aperture Priority)
Focal Length: 95mm
F-stop: 4/4.5
ISO speed: 1600
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec. (really good for pool lighting conditions)