Gymnastics, Photography & Me...What a Mess!

Good Morning Terrific Tuesday Readers!

So last week I was invited to come over and take some pictures of one of my co-workers granddaughter who is part of a local gymnastic team.  I said "sure, why not!" after all, I have years of studies with the Art Institute and I felt really good about being invited, almost as a tryout to be their official photographer.  What a deal, ah?  So, I packed my equipment, and headed to the gym and to tell you the truth...it was a nightmare!!!

I have never been to the gym before (first mistake) and had no idea what the lighting set up was going to be.  I arrived expecting to take some action shots and what they really wanted was posing type shooting (I didn't have my strobe set).  Parents didn't know I was coming as everything was done through a middle person (big mistake).  Only two of the 14 team members knew that I was coming, and they didn't know it was going to be on that specific day.  On top of everything, the gym lights were not all turned on at the same time (since they were not expecting me) and it was a lighting chaos for me.

So what did I do (I wanted to run away), I just took a deep breath and convinced everyone that it was going to be test shot for me to decide if I wanted to come back.  The rest of the evening went as smoothly as I could have expected and some of the parents asked me for my business card because they liked how I handled the team.

So what do I want you to remember from my experience? 

1.  Do all planning with the point of contact, that could be the manager, the client, or whomever wants the job done, they are the ones that will give you the information you need to be better prepared.
2.  Scout the area and see what it looks like and what equipment you can use to include the props in the area.  I think that scouting is taught in the first two years, (I got overconfident!).
3.  Test your equipment and if needed, bring extra such as batteries, lenses and cleaning materials.
4.  If an unexpected situation arises, by all means keep your cool!
5.  If possible, be ready for any lighting situation.  I couldn't use flash because it was distracting to them and I had to go to 6400 ISO in order to get some action pictures, but the flip side was that the images were grainy.

I am glad to say that I have been invited to come back and get the other type pictures they wanted to begin with.  But...it was a lesson learned!  Check out some of the images around this page, they are all from that shooting.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Your Tuesday Ambassador.