They're pretty good. I'm just wondering about your crop decisions. On the B/W... why are the hands chopped with so much dead space up top? You nailed the tumbler, but man, I have to tell ya... even under the best captures, I find tumbelling to be so boring. Nothing ever truly compelling and I don't know if I have posted any over the years. Very, very few at least. On the third, why so much space up top? Last is best in terms of composition.
P Alesse wrote:
They're pretty good. I'm just wondering about your crop decisions. On the B/W... why are the hands chopped with so much dead space up top? You nailed the tumbler, but man, I have to tell ya... even under the best captures, I find tumbelling to be so boring. Nothing ever truly compelling and I don't know if I have posted any over the years. Very, very few at least. On the third, why so much space up top? Last is best in terms of composition.
Thank you Paul. I greatly appreciate your comments. See you at Worlds this year?
Good shots. I had the same thoughts on the images, so here is my input, if it means anything... With the dead space on #1, could be the base for a poster or just some cropping. I stopped taking shots of the tumbling passes and then parents kept asking for them again.... but I think I will stop again because the "asking" never translated into "buying". I look for the poses/facials at the end of the passes, which always guarantees that the girls won't do something special....
Same for #3, lots of space at the top. I like #4, the hands give a good perspective for the height of the toss. Nice images otherwise. Wish I had good lighting.... all of mine have been shot in horrible lighting lately.
Every cheer shooter has his/her opinion when it comes to tumbling passes. I always shoot them. Usually, I am sitting in one of the corners and my focus is on the subject coming at me.
I like to catch them during the last pass as they're going into a full. My objective is to catch them upside down, which I've shown before in the past. I could do a whole thread on just tumbling, but no one would appreciate them. I see them as compelling based on facial expressions (upside down, mind you) and if you can completely freeze the action. My results and experience spans a long time so I am comfortable shooting everything about cheer and dance.
I came home this weekend from shooting the Illinois HS state finals. I'm still wading through 10k clicks. I will try to post something soon.
Shoot tumbling, shoot everything. Shooting cheer is not about following the trends of others.
#1 - I love it! Contrast is incredible to offset the subject and have so much black space around!
#2 - Great perspective! Only being lower would show the height of the tumble - if you keep the floor in, but with the other girls in the background, it shows well.
When it comes to tumbling, the best place to be is on the opposite corner from their angle of tumble - i.e.: perpendicular to them. This gives the camera a minimal focus track as it's almost a plane you're working with (as long as you're settings don't try to hunt for background subjects during tracking). It also gives you virtually all of their tumbling pass as photo opportunities: roll in, back hand spring, back tuck, full, layout, x-out, etc... and then their tahdah is right there at the end without being too close. And when you catch them upside-down, you don't see the almost painful expressions and eyes in the top of their head faces if you try shooting head on.
#3 - has a bit extra headspace, but good expression and isolation
#4 - great composition and glad to see a team with enough bloomer to spare that shots like this aren't considered questionable.
All good stuff! And glad to see only shots from your program!
I too like the action but the crops and comps are a bit different to me and may be layed out for other purposes. But thanks for showing these.
Nice work.
