Arnold Gymnastics Challenge

[ciddog91]

Here are a few pics from the gymnastics meet this last weekend. It was in Columbus OH and was part of the Arnold Fitness Challenge. There were gymnasts from all over the US there.
Our team placed 3rd for level 4 boys and 2nd for level 5 boys.

We were also invited to a practice for some of the Olympic gymnasts. I was able to take pics of them and they spoke to our boys for some encouragment.

Below are pics of Blain Wilson #1 (Olympic Medelist)
Paul Hamm #2 (Olympic Champion in All Around)
Morgan Hamm (Olympic Medelist)
And one of our boys that took 4th (I believe) in the meet in All Around

I did not have a chance to photoshop them much, but the lighting was not too bad...

[JSPhoto]

Nice timing. They do however appear a tad soft. Maybe you could try prefocusing and shut of the AF for that.

I won't be doing any gymnastics this year. Our local team got into some major legal troubles. Coach fired, maybe headed to jail and 8 of the girls are out of school for a while. What a disaster!

JS

[ciddog91]

JS,
Thanks for the advice. I will try that in practice this week and check the results. I have over 350 pics to go through this week from this event. I have about 150 from the practice and 200 from the meet. I need to see how they all came out.

I was shooting with a 30D and a canon 70-200 f2.8. ISO 1000 and shutter at 1/250.

Do you think these settings are ok or do you think I should up the shutter to 1/320 and up ISO?? Also I was at f3.2...

Thanks..Phil

[JSPhoto]

You should be at f2.8 ! Use the lens to your advantage, it will focus faster as well. Are you on AI Servo? That will help as well. I usually put mine on Center Spot and focus on the face which should ive good facial focus and blur the rest, especially the bg. It makes the bg less distracting. One other thing I do is shoot most gymnastics vert and not horizontal but thats more because I like to do it that way and it's easier for newspaper prints. unless it's on the beam or floor then I switch back and forth. Easy to do with a 1D as it has dual controls for v & h.
You can bump your iso up and do clean up with post processing but a little motion blur won't hurt as long as the main focus point is there.

JS

[ciddog91]

JS..

Thanks.. I will be shooting at 2.8 and will use center spot as well. I do use Al Servio for focus. I have been shooting vert for rings, parallel bars, high bar and vault. Until I get better, I shoot floor and pommel horse horizontal because of the side to side action. Once I get better I will shoot more vert on these.

I also need to get a battery grip and all my controls will be able to be accessed either vert or reg.

Thanks..

Phil

[JSPhoto]

No problem Phil. Your on the right track though.

JS