En Garde, Prete, Allez….it’s a good thing I had Joel to assist me today. At least as a fencer he was able to communicate what Claire and I had in our minds to the fencers. Very useful to get good shots fast. Technically, it wasn’t too difficult as most of the action happened in the same plane, so fix the focus and watch the action happen. And if they were required to lunge towards the camera, it was “hang on, hang on, stay there…” until my 5D can catch up on focusing. Visions of a 1D Mk IV always cross my mind in situations like this. Man, am I seriously considering this camera…but for now, I’m just happy to tell them to act and hold for the camera.

The girls were great and played their part to try to hold their balance as much as possible for the camera. I just used as little power from the elinchroms as possible to reduce recycling time and just time my shots well when they were competing. After awhile, I got the hang of it and it was plain sailing after that.

Briefing the fencer. On the left is what you did...on the right is what we like to see.

Locking focus on Joel

After a hard day's work with a few of the fencers