Yesterday was a start to the series of shoots involving athletes from various sports. The images will be used to publicize and introduce the Games to the public in a few months time. We started with gymnastics, in my opinion, one of the most challenging sports to shoot. I remember having such a hard time when shooting in the SEA Games. The speed of the athlete coupled with the low lighting sent shivers down my spine.

The good thing was yesterday’s shoot was not in a competition environment and we could direct the gymnasts to repeat certain routines. But the speed was also a challenge. I wish I could ask them to stop in mid air but defying gravity is not one of their strengths. So we encountered all sorts of tech issues but the most tricky ones were the most basic. Logistics. The gym was fully occupied, both with gymnasts and equipment and power sockets were at the walls far away from the action. Mental note: bring plenty of extension cords. Halfway through the shoot, we had to move because our power cord was lying on the runway for the vault. And we had to figure out how to wire up the lights again. This and other problems took a lot of time to resolve.

Getting ready for the shoot

We concentrated on the balance beam and the pommel horse only. For the balance beam, I used the strobe but the main problem was the range of the Skyport transmitter. One of my lights seem to have more limited range and nothing is more frustrating than having one light firing without the other. And taking turns to fire. So the poor girl had to repeat her routine many times. I’m just hoping that through this she gets even better. As for the horse, I used the modeling light because there’s no way the strobe will be able to catch up. So I slipped on a 50mm F1.4, set it open at something like F2.5 to get enough shutter speed and it turned out pretty good. That’s also because he was in a stationery location and not jumping from one end to the other.

Test shot at F4. Not enough shutter speed

I will need more help in the coming shoot so if you’re interested in assisting, please let me know. I will need a pool of assistants as the shoots are going to be almost daily and notice can only be given at the last minute.