"Denver's Amanda Johanson is introduced to the crowd before a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011."
"Denver's Melodie Pulgarin Linero launches off of the vault and scores a 9.60 during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011."
"Denver's Amanda Johanson celebrates her 9.675 bars routine with teammate Kristina Coccia during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011."
"Denver's Louise Mercer performs a gienger release on the uneven bars during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. Mercer scored a 9.850 to finish tied for second on the event and in third in the all-around."
"Denver's Louise Mercer celebrates her 9.850 performance on the uneven bars during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. Mercer finished tied for second place on uneven bars with BYU's Natalie Eyre."
"Denver's Melodie Pulgarin Linero spots her landing on the balance beam during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. Pulgarin Linero scored a 9.725 on the event."
"Denver's Louise Mercer, left, collects her thoughts as she receives some last minute instructions from teammate Amanda Johanson before competing on balance beam during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. Mercer scored a 9.525 on the event."
"Denver's Taylor Stanford, left, and Jaleesa Wilson during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011."
"Denver's Brianna Springer shows her flexibility on the floor exercise during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. Springer scored a 9.725 on floor to help her finish in fourth place in the all-around."
"Denver's Amanda Johanson tries to spot her landing on the floor exercise during a quad meet against Georgia, Air Force and Brigham Young at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. Johanson scored a 9.50 on the event."
As someone whose personal style is driven by strong graphical elements, gymnastics is easily one of my favorite sports to shoot.
A little creativity and a lot of preparation went into yesterday's meet and I think that it paid off pretty well.
Gymnastics is one of those sports where you can often find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus, without a picture.
Knowing the routines is half the battle so taking something that I learned from friend and amazing sports photographer Dave Black, I went the day before the meet to watch the girls practice and chart their routines. I pretty much knew exactly where the girls were going to be and what skills they were performing so I was able to map out the ideal place to sit to make the best pictures.
Is it a lot of extra work? Sure, but it makes a world of difference when you only have seconds to make a picture.
I also took advantage of the opportunity to set a remote camera in the rafters above the uneven bars. This also cost me some time since I had to arrive nearly three hours before the meet to get it set up.
Shooting with a camera in my hands and subsequently firing the remote camera at the same time helped me create two completely different pictures of the same moment of time like the pictures of Louise Mercer above. I do remotes all the time at sports like basketball, hockey and soccer but since DU holds their meets in a different smaller gym this was the first time I was able to do one high and above the competitors.
Although I struggled making some amazing feature pictures (new year's resolution) I still think I came away with a solid variety of images. DU next competes in Magness Arena during regionals in April so I have some time to clean up my mistakes and improve upon my ideas, images for that meet.
-JCE
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