Dundee Open

As a family, we spent much of today in the Dundee Ice Arena. My daughter was competing in the Open Championship, her first figure skating competition. Jenni did really well, achieved a great score and has set herself up very well for the next competition, in a few weeks time.

Photographically, I admit that I struggled a bit. The lighting was great, but my 70-200mm doesn't quite have the reach I wanted and. Also, most of the moves are intended to be done facing the judges - it is they she has to impress, after all! But the audience was only allowed to sit opposite the judges, so many of the moves were done facing away from us.

This is a good example. To anyone who thinks that figure skating is easy, I would point out that she is travelling backwards, holding her foot above head height, balancing on a five millimetre wide strip of steel on a really hard, slippery surface! I find it quite amazing that anyone can possibly do that!

So "well done" to Jenni, and "thank you" to her brother for being so supportive throughout the day!