This edition of the Photographer’s Spotlight is a tribute to Oklahoma Sooners alum Brie Olson.

Brie finished her eligibility in the 2013 season. She amassed numerous awards, honors, and event titles in her career – too many to list. She is one of the nicest persons you could ever meet and her routines will definitely be missed.

The opening photo is one of my favorites of Brie. The image composition is balanced by the athlete on the left and the flag on the right. Light shines on the athlete at the perfect angle to create a blend of highlights and shadows, giving texture to the image.

The flag is splashed in a semi-spotlight pattern to make it visible, yet is subtle enough to create a natural look.

The rest of the frame is underexposed, allowing the available light to create a more dramatic effect.

Achieving this effect starts with disabling the “Highlight Tone Priority” setting in Canon cameras (I’m not sure of the equivalent setting in other gear) and manually adjusting the exposure. Watch how the light falls on the subject – notice the angle of the arena lights; and set the shutter speed only as fast as it needs to be to freeze the action, with as low of an ISO as possible.

When photographing gymnastics, a photographer is often stifled (and rudely treated) by various NCAA goons who believe your presence is a danger to all humanity, but people running around with heavy television cameras are A-OK. So they stuff you in a tiny area with an obstructed view or worse – they don’t allow you on the floor at all.

In these situations there is little you can do; most of your photos are forced to be from the same angle and can look repetitive.

I try to handle this by changing the picture profile – color scheme, contrast, highlights and saturation – everything at my disposal – throughout the gymnast’s routine, as in the balance beam photos above. This means you need to know your camera’s controls inside-out, so that you can instinctively make on-the-fly adjustments and not miss the action.

Sometimes photographing uneven bars is challenging, not only because of where you are forced to stand and obstacles that block your view, but because every gymnast is doing required skills, like handstands.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the apparatus and clean vertical handstands with good form. But if your view is blocked and the only thing you can get a clean shot of is handstands on the top bar, you’re again faced with repetitive pictures.

To get around this, lens selection is critical. I vary the focal length of the lenses I’m using and typically go with fast glass, that is, nothing higher than f2.8. Some of the above photos were taken at f2.8 with my 70mm – 200mm lens and some were taken at f2.0 with a 135mm prime.

I change up the focal point, sometimes focusing on the bar and chalk dust, and other times I go wide so I can get the full extension of the gymnast.

In post-production, I’ll mute colors in a particular range or even over-saturate colors and exaggerate the highlights.

Of course I also throw in composite layers when inspiration strikes, as in the photo above with the star field, which makes Brie look like she’s doing bars in outer space.

I love the photo above. I don’t know why, but I’m into “flying gymnast” pictures of late. I suppose its because gymnasts often seem to defy gravity, and Brie Olson certainly had a lot of power when she leaped and tumbled.

The top photo in the above group is a moment I was glad to have captured. Brie had done a magnificent floor routine, scoring 9.95. As she was acknowledging the standing ovation from the crowd, I saw that she was positioned in such a way that her score was visible behind her.

However, my camera was not setup to seize the moment. My f-stop was way too wide open, causing a narrow depth-of-field. The score in the back would have come out too blurry to be effective.

Again, this is where knowing your camera comes in handy. Without hesitation I quickly adjusted the depth of field, compensated for the exposure by opening up the shutter speed and BAM! I got it before the moment slipped away.

 

You can check out more pictures from my Brie Olson collection on Gymnastike at this link:

http://www.gymnastike.org/photoalbum/449309

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http://gymsharkphoto.zenfolio.com/

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