Gymnastics
events provides photographers many opportunities to capture spectacular
athletic feats.
Yale's
Jessica Wang goes high when dismounting from the balance beam vs. University of
New Hampshire.
The Photo
The gymnastics meet between
Yale and University of New Hampshire (UNH) featured highly talented competitors
on the balance beam, vault, floor exercise and parallel bars, but I quickly
realized that the balance beam would give me the best pictures. The gymnasts on the beam did numerous head-over-heels
flips as they repeatedly landed perfectly on the beam, and twisted their bodies
around while soaring high into the air on their amazing dismounts. I planned to crouch down low, to make their
leaps look even higher and more spectacular in a photo. My challenge as a photographer would be to simultaneously
capture their spectacularly high leaps and faces as they performed their
routines.
As the young women performed,
they moved rapidly, springing up and over the beam, but often turned their
faces away, so I had yet to get a great photo.
The dismounts had great potential, but the athletes were moving in so
many different directions at the same time, it was not easy to perfectly time their
leaps, twists, and faces to capture the most powerful image. On the next to
last balance beam routine, one gymnast looked my way repeatedly, and I shot
several strong photos of her upside down and high in the air over the beam. And when she dismounted, she leaped higher and
spun more than anyone else, giving me another powerful photo of her winning
routine.
3 Tips
1)
The balance beam event
typically provides some of the best gymnastics photos.
2)
Shoot from a low angle to
make the gymnasts’ leaps look higher and more spectacular.
3)
You’ll likely need to shoot
many, many photos to capture both the gymnasts’ athleticism and faces in one
great image.
