# Spent all weekend shooting Gymnastics



## jlykins (Dec 21, 2008)

I was contacted by the photography company that was doing a national gymnastics competition here in Cincinnati this weekend to shoot for them. Myself and 6 other photogs shot roughly 100,000 photos in three days. Here are a few that I brought home with me to keep and add to my collection of work. Please excuse the noise. We were shooting ISO1600 to be able to keep up with the gymnists. Thanks for looking!

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## stsinner (Dec 21, 2008)

Wow, dude, you nailed it!!  I was going to joke that you got some pics of amazing sexual positions, but with the ages of the athletes, I decided to refrain..  Good focus, good motion stop..  Nice pics.


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## jlykins (Dec 21, 2008)

Good refrain. And thanks on the comments! There was a highschool cheer competition going on at the same time as the gymnastics, man what I wouldn't give to be 17 again...


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## stsinner (Dec 21, 2008)

jlykins said:


> Good refrain. And thanks on the comments! There was a highschool cheer competition going on at the same time as the gymnastics, man what I wouldn't give to be 17 again...



Oh, I hear you..  So tell me.. How did you do it?  With the focus being the longest part of the capture, how do you set you camera up to lock the frame as you see it?


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## JaimeGibb (Dec 21, 2008)

stsinner said:


> Wow, dude, you nailed it!!  I was going to joke that you got some pics of amazing sexual positions, but with the ages of the athletes, I decided to refrain..  Good focus, good motion stop..  Nice pics.



Yyyyea, I'd stay away from that...

These rock! Maybe a faster shutter on 4, and a larger crop on the second to last (girl with hands on bar...hands and bar cut off) but other than that they are awesome, you got some great action shots! Great lighting too.


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## jlykins (Dec 22, 2008)

stsinner said:


> Oh, I hear you.. So tell me.. How did you do it? With the focus being the longest part of the capture, how do you set you camera up to lock the frame as you see it?


The key was to know what they were going to do. These were the level 10 girls which from what I was told is the last stop before olympic tryouts. Anyway, I had been shooting the lower level girls all weekend and by their body movements I could tell what they were about to do so I would lock the focus on them and shoot a 12 shot burst as they were going through the move. I had my battery grip on my d300 so I was able to do 8fps. It helped a lot. It was funny though, because I was shooting so fast, when I went back to look at the shots from the series, you could see the lights flickering. lol



JaimeGibb said:


> Yyyyea, I'd stay away from that...
> 
> These rock! Maybe a faster shutter on 4, and a larger crop on the second to last (girl with hands on bar...hands and bar cut off) but other than that they are awesome, you got some great action shots! Great lighting too.


 
I was at the absolute fastest shutterspeed I could go without raising the ISO more. I was shooting ISO1600 at _f_/2.8 around 1/300 sec.


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## roentarre (Dec 22, 2008)

These shots are very tough to capture!


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## jlykins (Dec 22, 2008)

roentarre said:


> These shots are very tough to capture!


 
It wasn't as bad as you may think. I'll tell you though, holding a D300 with a grip, and a 70-200 2.8 to your face 13 hours a day for three days solid wears you out. My arms hurt.


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## cary (Dec 27, 2008)

I think you did an awesome job.  If I were the parents I would definitely purchase the ones with my kid in it.


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## jlykins (Dec 27, 2008)

cary said:


> I think you did an awesome job. If I were the parents I would definitely purchase the ones with my kid in it.


 

Hey thanks! That's what I like to hear.


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## Montana (Dec 28, 2008)

Very great captures!  You should feel good about yourself after these.

Derrick


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