Kids pool party lens choice

Hi

my youngest daughter (6) will celebrate her birthday with a swimming/pool party. What would be best to shoot some of the fun underwater? I have a cropped sensor Canon and the 10-22mm rectangular lens as well as the Tokina 10-17mm (that I normally use) which I also could combine with a teleconverter. I don’t have that many possibilities to try it out on a club pool night  (only 1 without kids)

Is wider / fisheye better? Or less distortion? Or should I just lighten up and enjoy the party?

Usually use non-fisheye for people photos unless you want to make weird exaggerated perspectives. But would you even expect much UW action from 6 year olds? Will they dive down and open their eyes UW? Not sure I'd consider it worthwhile if it takes much effort. Then again, above water photos from in the water could be fun. I'd go with the 10-22 either way, shooting at 22mm for above water.

I used to shoot quite a lot of pics some years back of kids on a PADI Bubblemaker course. I used a D300 and the Tokina 10-17.

Although I'd agree with Undertow on using a non-fisheye, I did find that using the Tokina did produce a good number of very useable and fun images underwater. Sure, some had weird perspectives but, perhaps inevitably, when photographing people, lots of the images were rubbish - and some were terrific. I also did a couple of model-type photoshoots in a pool and, again, used the 10-17 with good results. 

Yep, the 10-17 above the water, not so good.

I think you are right though, relax and enjoy the party - stick your camera on multi-shot release and shoot away. The kids - and their parents - love the underwater shots.

One final, rather depressing, thought though: I was photographing (and ran) the Bubblemaker course back in the 00s. Given all the issues now raised about working with kids, I'd be much more wary and make absolutely sure that parents were ok with it. Even taking pics of my grandkids (yeah, I'm that old) now in the park, I feel, sadly, a bit uncomfortable when there are other kids and parents around. All a bit sad really.

Rectilinear lens 20 mm and longer in 35 equivalent to avoid the kids look weird

Of course you can shoot a fisheye but it looks ugly

The 10-22 lens was a good choice, definitely wide enough for this. I did a test with a +2 diopter the week before but decided against it. Couldnt see much improvement in sharpness but i could see more Chromatic Abberation.

Had lots of fun and the children were photobombing eachother. I did ask if any parents had objections but they were all enthusiast about the idea. Some pictures were just snapshots, some almost post or 'action' shots.  At least the parents liked them.

Brilliant! Really glad it worked well.