Gymnastics.....Finally

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Russ Isabella
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p.1 #1 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Utah had a preseason preview tonight--an intra-squad meet to roll out this year's team. No seniors, three freshman and a bunch of sophomores and juniors. Should be a fun year, and they should be very strong next year.

I was very pleased with the 1Dx's performance. In fact, I'd read recently that the 85 f/1.2L II is a much faster lens on the 1Dx, so I thought I'd give it a try and used it to shoot bars. Pretty slick. Not once did it feel that the AF was slower than I needed it to be. I couldn't situation myself to shoot beam with the 85, but that's what I'll do for the first home meet. Finally, I get to put that honking piece of glass to work! Beam was shot with the 200 f/1.8; floor was shot with the 200 and a 24-70 f/2.8, but that was my worst even by far and I don't have much to show for it.

10 images for C&C. This was the warm-up. I'll have 5 meets to work from here.

1.

2. An old favorite.

3. One of the freshmen.

4. A co-captain who rocks the bars.

5. Same gymnast in hover mode.

10. Tip of the iceberg of what the 1Dx is capable of.

Dec 08, 2012 at 06:51 AM

gschlact
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p.1 #2 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Hi Russ,
Nice first set of the season. I hope that first blonde didn't think you we're stalking her? (I think you had 3of10 of her).

When you mentioned the 85mm 1.2 shooting the balance beam I thought I would make a request for a particular shot to see if you could snag it this season. (That is if the following is still done?)

I envision the following with the narrow DOF at f1.2, let me try to describe it in non technical way since i dont know the name of the moves. 1- position yourself at one end of the beam with lens horizontal to floor and just a couple inches above beam surface. 2- focus image on face. 3- wait for the gymnast to do one of those back walk overs, except where they wind up with their face right in the beam looking at you with their chin on the beam with some of the torso, but then the rest of their body flipped back over their head with their feet dangling in from of their head or just above holding the position. I think dangling might be best as their whole own body becomes part of the bokeh.

What do you think?

Nice backgrounds in most of this set too by the way.

Guy

Dec 08, 2012 at 07:10 AM

John P Mulgrew
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p.1 #3 · Gymnastics.....Finally

I shot some HS gymnastics the other day and was not happy at all with the results but that 1st time each year is always bad. I also could not get comfortable with the tracking, kept trying different ones but then again the lighting isn't very good and they wear dark purple leotards. Was telling a couple of people the other day that if I was ever given the chance to shoot whatever sport I wanted to that I would choose a good Div 1 college gymnastics team, I love gymnastics and could shoot it all year. The gracefulness and strength is a good thing to see.

Dec 08, 2012 at 10:58 AM

Tareq
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p.1 #4 · Gymnastics.....Finally

True, this camera opened sports photography fun again for me, i was happy in the past with 1D2n and then 1D3, but both bodies lost their appealing after some time and i felt i want to upgrade or send them for service, but when i got 1DX i feel like i am doing sports at better and higher level now, even my lenses are shinning again with it [300 2.8IS, 70-200mkII,...etc].

Great shots there!

Dec 08, 2012 at 11:58 AM

amlsml
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p.1 #5 · Gymnastics.....Finally

talented athletes, beautifully captured, love seeing these posts. Thanks Russ

Dec 08, 2012 at 12:22 PM

Geoffrey Bolte
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p.1 #6 · Gymnastics.....Finally

As always Russ some great stuff! Can't wait to see the rest of the season!!

Dec 08, 2012 at 01:23 PM

kevin s
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p.1 #7 · Gymnastics.....Finally

russ, great series. re: #10 and the "tip of the iceberg" i appreciate the difficulty of the shot but, for me, i'd like to know what the focus point was? thanks for your post.

Dec 08, 2012 at 03:12 PM

Russ Isabella
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p.1 #8 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Guy: Thanks for your comments. If I understand your description, this shot was envisioned some years back by a good friend with a golden eye--you might know him as Tom D. Tom shared this vision with me and I was able to capture the shot on this particular athlete's last routine of the season. I've posted it below. You can tell me if this is what you had in mind.

John: You're right about this very high level of the sport offering unique opportunities for good photos, and even then, there are so many obstacles, as the horrible backgrounds in most of my shots here will attest to. Regarding tracking, I used Case 2 and I thought it worked pretty well. (For everything else I've shot, mostly football and basketball, I'd been using Case 4). But the greatest feature of all with this camera, as far as I'm concerned, is the visible active focus points while shooting. I'm selecting my point and also activating all surrounding points. Being able to see all of these points is like having one big honking focus point to work with, and that's a tremendous help. When I was switching back and forth between cameras while shooting floor, every time I picked up the 1DIV and had to rely on the single lit focus point, I felt like I was at a serious disadvantage.

Thanks, Tareq. Glad to hear you're rejuvenated.

amlsml: Thank you. It doesn't get much better than what these athletes have to offer. The challenge is to find the best way to shoot them, and on this night, a number of factors led to my making some poor choices in this area. I had thought about skipping this season preview, but I'm real glad I didn't because it will allow me to figure some things out.

Geoffrey: Thanks, man. I'm looking forward to it as well!

Kevin: Your question led me to look more closely at #10 and it looks like her hands are the sharpest part of her, which doesn't quite work, does it. Oh well, the background already killed that shot, so I can't be too disappointed, but I still at impressed at the tracking involved. Thanks for your feedback.

Here's the image from several years back. I was talking to a young photographer last night who has been shooting gymnastics for three years now. He was talking about how amazed he is when he looks back to his earlier work and compares it to what he's capable of now. Great improvement. He asked if I had the same experience, and I said yes, but, I also look back and occasionally I find some images that I not only would be proud of today, but that lead me to feel that maybe I'm not heading in the right direction. This is one of those shots. (Maybe I just need to spend more time inside Tom's head!)

Dec 08, 2012 at 04:13 PM

Grantland
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p.1 #9 · Gymnastics.....Finally

excellent as usual.

i am always wanting to learn from the pros so . . . when i look at image #3 and #1 (to a lesser degree) it seems the gymnast isn' centered in the frame? is there a reason for this?

thanks,

grant

Dec 08, 2012 at 07:54 PM

Russ Isabella
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p.1 #10 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Thanks, Grant. I was speeding through my editing of these images so I don't know that my framing is exactly as I would want it, but you should be able to notice that none of the images have a perfectly centered subject. I try to avoid "bulls-eyeing" my subject and I also try to leave some breathing room in images where motion is implied. As well, there's some attention to the rule of thirds. So, when the original image provides flexibility with framing, those are some of the things I'm thinking about.

Two more shots:

11.

12.

Dec 08, 2012 at 08:52 PM

gschlact
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p.1 #11 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Russ,
You found the Pose I was describing. I am not saying it is possible with your placement limitations, but now imagine for your evolved talents from this shot, that you can take advantage of the f1.2 to creat about 1-2 inches of DOF on her eyes such that the feet and everything else are more OOF than shown here. This would complete my vision. I'm on ipad so I can't see exif, to work your approximate 2 feet of dof backwards to know your distance. You up for the 2013 try?

-Guy

PS- being based in UT, have you ever spent time taking any skiing powder shots? Or if played with Strobing at right time of day to create some cool effects.

Dec 09, 2012 at 12:06 AM

John P Mulgrew
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p.1 #12 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Thanks Russ, I like Case 4 for a lot of things. Beautiful shots as usual.

Dec 09, 2012 at 05:09 PM

BobnJake
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p.1 #13 · Gymnastics.....Finally

WOW, nice start I would say

Glad to hear that you are somewhat confirming how nice the 85 f/1.2L II seems to be working with the 1Dx. Have to give it a try

Thanks for posting
Bob

Dec 09, 2012 at 05:19 PM

shaneroper
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p.1 #14 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Russ, great shots and wow is gymnastics tough!!! It was hard being in the right position to catch the faces since the routines varied and I didn't know them, we..shot a gymnastics event that had over 600 kids and could really only shoot the beam due to lighting...the floor was horrible lit and bars very difficult and the routines were really short for the little ones. Vault was just to fast.

I think marketing for this is extremely tough...we tried doing green screen composites and still didn't have many parents stopping by.

Anyways, look forward to seeing more of your shots!

Shane

Dec 09, 2012 at 09:44 PM

Russ Isabella
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p.1 #15 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Guy: I really don't have the opportunity to specialize to that degree while shooting a meet. I also don't know that any of the current gymnasts have that move in their routine. And you'd be amazed how brief a time that foot is near the head! As for shooting powder, no, I never have given that, or any ski shots, a try.

Thanks, John. Yeah, Case 4 seems to work very well. Just thought I'd take advantage of the options by using something different for a very different sport.

Thank you, Bob. Yes, play around with your 85L II. I'm sure you could convince Nina to serve as a willing subject.

Shane: You're right, there are a lot of challenges and they vary by gym, rotation, and athlete, to name a few relevant factors. I'm quite content with the regular meets I shoot with at most 6 competitors at each of 4 rotations. Over 600? Yikes. Thanks for your comments.

Dec 09, 2012 at 11:41 PM

Caleb Williams
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p.1 #16 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Russ Isabella wrote: He asked if I had the same experience, and I said yes, but, I also look back and occasionally I find some images that I not only would be proud of today, but that lead me to feel that maybe I'm not heading in the right direction. This is one of those shots.

I've always said that.

Also, beginner's luck. I sometimes see the same thing with wrestling.

Dec 09, 2012 at 11:58 PM

chrisbergmann
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p.1 #17 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Great stuff as usual

Dec 10, 2012 at 12:52 AM

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #18 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Russ I jumped to the sports corner and was stoked to see your name next to a Gymnastics thread!

Great stuff as usual!

Matt

Dec 10, 2012 at 03:55 AM

gschlact
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p.1 #19 · Gymnastics.....Finally

Russ,

Challenges are always good, but feel free to ignore it. I still think it would look cool. Maybe one day you'll be at a warm up, or practice and ask one of the girls to do the move for you to shoot without the pressure of a Meet.

<I>Guy: I really don't have the opportunity to specialize to that degree while shooting a meet. I also don't know that any of the current gymnasts have that move in their routine. And you'd be amazed how brief a time that foot is near the head! As for shooting powder, no, I never have given that, or any ski shots, a try.</I>

Guy

Dec 10, 2012 at 06:12 AM

CW100
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p.1 #20 · Gymnastics.....Finally

great set of gymnastic shots

Dec 10, 2012 at 12:07 PM

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