Leaps and bounds.
“…the art is in selecting what is worthwhile to take the trouble about….”
– Berenice Abbott
Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.
A cropped image of the pointed toes of a Chinese gymnast while competing in the 28th World Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships 2011 at the National Indoor Arena Birmingham.
Acting as a qualification event for the 2012 London Olympic Games, this year’s World Trampoline Championships (held at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham from November 17th to 20th) took on an added significance for the many competitors. With just eight places guaranteed for the men’s and women’s events, competition was tight and tense. In addition World titles were up for the taking in the Synchronised event along with Tumbling and Double Mini Tramp (none of which are Olympic events).
Last year the British Championships were here as a test event with a dismal level of light for action photography. Working then at 3200 ISO captured the action but failed somewhat on the quality test. This year’s Worlds had a measurably better level of light but threw up a number of challenges. The competition area was unevenly lit with from one half to a full stop of difference depending on the angle you used. A good part of the lighting rig was behind the nation’s flags decorating the roof area; this meant that not only was the light diffused by the flags but different colour casts were thrown on to the competitors depending on the colour of the flag.
A wide view of the trampoline action showing the lighting rig behind the flags.
As Trampolining involves action high in the air, this was quite a problem. A competitor could hit one patch of colour on one bounce and on the next one, pick up another cast from a different flag.
He Wenna (China) competing in the 28th World Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships 2011 at the National Indoor Arena Birmingham.
Same gymnast, same routine, different bounce, different light!
It was virtually impossible to set a White Balance that dealt with this and the only solution was to use Auto and then colour correct in Photoshop.
A colour corrected action image of Daniel Praest (Denmark).
As ever with indoor sport, there was a trade off between capturing action and image quality. I did not want to stray much above 2000 ISO so opted to shoot at an 800thof a second, which is barely enough to freeze the movement. As I was also hand holding the 300 lens, this was quite a tricky approach but I just find it very difficult to shoot this sport on a monopod – you need to be able to respond to the up and down motion.
Britain's James Higgins frozen in space on 800th of a second.
For Tumbling, I opted to up the ISO and work with a higher shutter speed as some of the fast somersaults show some blur on an 800th.
Tumbler Yang Song of China shot with a shutter speed of 1000th second.
Shooting angles also proved to be something of a challenge and finding a clean background preoccupied me throughout the competition as I constantly moved around and switched positions within the limits of what was available. Shooting up meant that flare from the lamps was a major issue; avoid that and you almost certainly found yourself shooting into a bad background.
Kat Driscoll (Great Britain) competing in the 28th World Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships 2011 at the National Indoor Arena Birmingham against a clean background.
I found one nice clean black background but it was quite a small patch – available near the start of a routine when the competitor was bouncing high – so capturing the moment early on was essential.
Occasionally I do like to shoot Trampoline on a wide angle capturing the whole piece of apparatus with a competitor high above it. To achieve a good look for this approach you need a very clean look to the picture and I didn’t feel this was possible in the venue so tended for the most part to shoot tight on the action. I include an image here shot at the Sydney Olympic Games (on film), which illustrates the two different approaches.
Two ways of shooting Trampoline action - from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Good images of Synchronised Trampoline need a side angle with clean backgrounds; shooting end on creates a rather odd looking image with space between the competitors. In Birmingham there was no option but to shoot across the arena at floor level to get the necessary side view but this gave a messy background of an audience that was too brightly lit and extraneous features like the security lights on the stairs and steps.
Perfect action from Russia but the impact affected by the messy background.
Some images worked better than others.
Chinese competitors enjoy the moment.
The discipline also provided some rather amusing pictures when things went horribly wrong!
Cross purposes - it all goes wrong for the Portugese competitors.
For the Tumbling event I shot from an elevated position and aimed to get the gymnasts turning and twisting with their faces up towards the camera. Even 1000thof a second proved inadequate for stopping some of the more complex somersaults.
Russia's Andrey Krylov shot from above, lending impact to his facial expression.
Try as I might, I could not find a good angle – above or below – to shoot double mini tramp so in fact, tended to concentrate on the other events (hence the use of the quote at the start of this piece). Surprisingly given the bad light last year I managed to find a position which provided some interesting photos; it would have been nice to achieve the same kind of shot this time round.
A better angle for double mini tramp at last year's event.
It was possible to spend some time on more artistic approaches and when the good background was available I particularly wanted to concentrate on some multi exposure images as these can show clearly the technique of any given somersault.
A multi exposure image of Anton Pryschchepau (Belarus) competing at the 28th World Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships 2011 at the National Indoor Arena Birmingham.
Blurred motion images provided some interesting results with the face of the competitor almost sharp against the blur of their body movement.
An impression of speed and motion on a slow shutter speed.
Trampoline will enjoy its fourth Olympic experience in London and judging by the standard of performance on display here, it will be an exciting event. Hopefully the O2 Arena will offer better lighting, cleaner backgrounds and good angles. My thanks to the organisers and to the volunteers whose goodwill, hard work and helping hands made this event a success.
Essential helping hands.
A portfolio of images will be available to view on my website by the end of the week (link below).
© Eileen Langsley 2011
