OK, you're making this really hard with so many great shots. Might need a second beer in addition to a pen and paper.
Faves are 2,3,4,7,8,13,17,18,19, and 26.
You are routinely catching great action.
It's cruel that you're forced to shoot into those almost depressing backgrounds of empty or nearly empty seats. Doesn't any body on the east coast like gymnastics?
@ Larry .. sorry about that got carried away with posting images.. my bad
Thanks much much appreciated.. I'm now admirer of your work too
@andyep .. thanks much.. I was trying to be creative.. guess sometimes you get lucky
@Ted.. Thanks muchy.. I was trying to push the color... I like a bit more cooloorr if you know what i mean.
I found my camera setting to set to neural or standard.. I must have had it set to shoot something else.
That reminds me to (/facepalm) ALL WAYS double check your settings before you start an event.. there may be no time to do it once it starts..
on the empty seats.. yep gymnastics is not that popular on the east coast, either that or no one knows about it. for example, the UNC meet had a little over 1,800 there. NCSU had about 1,300..I'm going to one at W&M this weekend and they will prob get about 300-400..
Its a shame.. its not like routines are any less then some of the bigger teams in the country, at lease as far as I can tell. And the scoring isn't any lower...
I think some of these Uni's have very little budget for the sport, advertizing, etc.. so it shows in the butts in the seats..
I have thou, seen it get better as the years have gone by.. it wasn't oh 5 years ago I'd go to a meet and there be.. hmm 20-30 people there..
Why post unflattering gaffaws like 9 (feet apart, feet flexed, torso crooked, not tight) and 12 (missing both the legs and the upside down commode her face looks like she might otherwise be sitting on) when you have stunning, absolutely AH-MAZE-ING, and incredibly peak timed shots like 13 (sheep jump) and 19 (Geinger) in your set?
Focus Locus wrote:
Why post unflattering gaffaws like 9 (feet apart, feet flexed, torso crooked, not tight) and 12 (missing both the legs and the upside down commode her face looks like she might otherwise be sitting on) when you have stunning, absolutely AH-MAZE-ING, and incredibly peak timed shots like 13 (sheep jump) and 19 (Geinger) in your set?
Did you happen to notice in 12 that her entire team is focused in on watching her routine?
I mean I got it, yes, but, in the spirit of positive C&C, that particular shot did not communicate team commraderie, even while no one can argue that 12 displays ample evidence of the same.
I hope that makes some kind of sense.
The issue is partly that your background is so WONDERFULLY distanced from your foreground, rendering a great bokeh (is that how that word is spelled?) and excellent subject separation... that the BG really doesn't take that much focus, since it really is NOT in focus.
But your foreground IS in very clear focus. And it is painful to look at. I wouldn't dare say that if your other shots in this series were not so FREAKIN INSANELY INCREDIBLE.
I forget now which numbers they were, but few people catch the Geinger that high before above the bar. Why? I can only guess it's because by the time they REALIZE the athlete is doing a Geinger, she's already on her way down. So your shot is special to me, because it looks like you knew the Geinger was coming AS she released, not AFTER she released, so your timing linked up with her peak.
I think a gymnast would really appreciate that timing talent. And I don't think the same gymnast would appreciate you posting 12.
It's like shooting with an ultra wide angle lens. Whatever is in the foreground takes on a very powerful presence... overpowering whatever is in the background. So if you shoot a model laying on the beach with a 14mm from the sole sides of their feet, they better have some good looking feet, because we won't even notice their face in the distant background. That's the best analogy I can think of.
Speaking of feet... that sheep jump you shot... forgot the number, but daaanng that was good timing to. Did you see those feet right there at her head? I don't think that was motordrive. I think you felt it when the peak was coming. So many examples of your shots here tower far above 12, and my own work, in quality.
yap Foucs is right on.. #12 thou an interesting shot (prob why I posted it) doesn't fit the set of images here. amazed I got it this way, normally I get the back of her head or her butt.
some other shots that could be removed to, now i look at them.. 5, 9, 20
#13 sheep jump, I knew she was going to to this.. so I had to change my position to shoot over top of the judges. its a 2 shot burst.
