“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”

–      John Wooden

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

I begin the first posting of the New Year on the train, heading for the ‘London Prepares’ test event for Gymnastics.

Max Whitlock (Great Britain) the youngest member of the team, competing on Parallel Bars at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Not only is this a great opportunity for the organisers to test their preparations for The Games but it is also a final chance for many gymnasts to achieve the qualification standard set down by the FIG.

Kristian Thomas (Great Britain) concentrates before competing on Pommel Horse at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Not least amongst these will be the British Men’s team who, to everyone’s surprise, failed to achieve a place in the top eight teams at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo and thus gain automatic qualification for the Olympics. This must have been as much a surprise and shock to the gymnasts as it was to everyone else. Having followed their progress carefully in recent years I was taken aback by the result they achieved there and know how hard they will have trained since then to ensure that things do not go wrong at this event. Well, it will be as much a test of character as it will be of their skill and talent – hence my use of the quote above.

Louis Smith (Great Britain) competing in Pommel Horse final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Daniel Keatings (Great Britain) competing on Pommel Horse at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

The same applies to me too of course and whilst I am approaching my 13^thOlympic Games with anticipation, I know that it will be a challenge of endurance and fitness as much as it will be a test of my photographic abilities.

Kristian Thomas (Great Britain) competing on High Bar at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) competing on Parallel Bars at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

One week on and the artistic gymnastics event is over. As ever there have been highs and lows, disappointment and elation in equal measure. Some gymnasts travel home knowing their hopes of qualifying for the Olympics have been realised whilst others are coping with the bitter disappointment of seeing their dreams shattered. Watching all this made me realise the relevance of the quote at the start of this posting.

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) about to compete in the Rings final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Photographically this has been a challenging – and somewhat disappointing – event to cover. Whilst some improvements have been made since the 02 Arena staged the 2009 World Championships, there has been a real decline in the standard of the lighting. The fact that there was no live TV coverage no doubt had some influence and I’m sure that the economics of staging the event played a part. Not only was there a low level of light but there were some very strange colour casts – possibly the result of the running down of the lamps as they age. They are due to be replaced for the Olympics but it was a pity that the new ones weren’t in place for this event. I did careful checks during the first day of training but even so the only way to deal with the shifting colours was to shoot on Auto White Balance and resign myself to a lot of editing. It is not an easy arena to work in and finding clean angles almost impossible. Things were further complicated for us by the choice of colour scheme for the event – yellow mats, red on apparatus, pink on the surrounding area and a deep mauve on the carpet (which threw up some very unpleasant colour casts and shadows on the skin).

Max Whitlock (Great Britain) competing on High Bar at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012. This image needed a lot of colour correction thanks to the shadows cast on the skin.

In terms of the photographs I needed, this was most of all an event about emotions, successes and failures. I decided that while I would be aiming to get good action images, I would concentrate on shooting off podium, looking for facial expressions, moments of intense concentration and images that showed the relationships between gymnasts and their coaches.

National Men's Coach Andrey Popov waits for the final team score to be posted on the scoreboard at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) waiting for his score at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Louis Smith (Great Britain) in the line up for Pommel Horse final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

For once I decided to let the ‘art of sport’ images take a back seat and try to create images that told the story of what this event was all about – especially for the British Men’s team.

Max Whitlock (Great Britain) congratulated by Eddie Van Hoof after competing on Pommel Horse at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

National coach Andrey Popov gives Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) advice before competing on Rings at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

The images from the training sessions illustrate this and I shot a number of portrait images that clearly show the feelings of the gymnasts and coaches as they made their final preparations.

The British Men's team line up for the start of the competition at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Equally during and after the competition itself it was good to take similar photographs that clearly showed their elation, relief and happiness.

National Men's Coach Eddie Van Hoof waits for the final team score to be posted on the scoreboard at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012. His prayers were answered!

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) after competing on Vault at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Louis Smith (Great Britain) competing in Pommel Horse final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

My first posting is unashamedly xenophobic. Like everyone else, my focus (in every sense of the word) was on the British Men and how they would perform. I spent time shooting them in training, looking for images that would set the scene of their great challenge – and then followed them throughout the competition. For once, other gymnasts tended to take the back seat for me. I knew where my priorities lay and that’s where my efforts were aimed.

Ruslan Panteleymonov (Great Britain) competing on Rings at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Going full out. Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) competing on Floor Exercise at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Max Whitlock (Great Britain) competing on Floor Exercise shows his new original move at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

By the time I post this piece, the results will be being celebrated by everyone involved in British Gymnastics. Not only did the men’s team seize one of the four places left for teams qualification for The Games but they did it in great style finishing in first place and over seven points ahead of the next placed team (France).

The final scores and result of the men's team competition at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Celebration time for the British Men's team after they receive their gold medals at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

From start to finish it was obvious that the team were intent on doing the business and not letting anything distract them or interfere with their concentration.

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) competing in the Rings final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Obviously they benefitted from a partisan home crowd but there are times when this can work against a team’s efforts by putting too much pressure on them. The British gymnasts relished the atmosphere and allowed it to help them achieve their goal.

Gymnasts and parents from Huntingdon Gymnastics Club supporting the British team.

Acknowledging the support of the crowd. Louis Smith (Great Britain) celebrates after competing on Pommel Horse at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

Not only did they achieve their main aim of team qualification but there were successes in the apparatus finals too – for Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Louis Smith and Max Whitlock.

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) wins the gold medal for Floor Exercise at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

In some ways it is wrong to single out any one gymnast from the team but Daniel Keatings in particular had an impressive night by any standards. It has been a tough time for Daniel – overcoming a serious knee injury and then failing to compete to his normal high standards in Tokyo.

Daniel Keatings (Great Britain) competing in the Parallel Bars final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

For this event he had been selected to compete first on every piece of apparatus – a formidable challenge. Any gymnast who goes up first faces the double whammy of having to set a high standard for those who follow but also find that their scores are deflated somewhat as the judges leave themselves room to score ensuing gymnasts higher.

Intense concentration from Daniel Keatings - first up on Pommel Horse

It is significant that he still qualified for Parallel Bars final in spite of being first up on this piece in the team event. Daniel took this role on with courage and the determination to put his Tokyo demons to rest; his performance here was one of his best ever and the role he played in setting the stage for the other gymnasts should not be underestimated.

After the competition Daniel Keatings (Great Britain) is interviewed by television at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

It was good to see the gymnasts relishing the support of the crowd – even the normally reserved members of the team – and the competition must have really boosted their spirits and confidence.

Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) after competing on Parallel Bars at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

The other side of the coin is that each team member will have left London knowing that their result here guarantees nothing – the arduous process of training, competing and selection goes on. Gymnastics is a tough sport in so many ways. An athlete or swimmer has to meet a time or distance to qualify for the Games. A gymnast has to be selected for his national team and the result achieved here is only part of that process. On top of all this each gymnast needs to stay fit and free of injury – not easy when the training becomes more intensive as The Games approach.

Louis Smith (Great Britain) competing in Pommel Horse final at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012.

While the British were facing their own Everest, gymnasts from all over the world were on a similar trek and images of these, along with more of the British team will be posted on my website (link below).

My sincere congratulations to the team – not only the gymnasts but the coaches and medical staff who were an essential part of the success story. My apologies to any readers who feel this was a particularly patriotic posting – but I was proud to be there to witness this great moment in the history of Gymnastics in Britain.

The training goes on. Daniel Purvis (Great Britain) training on Floor Exercise at the 'London Prepares' Test Event at the North Greenwich Arena London January 2012

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2012

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”

–      Ansel Adams

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

It’s that time of year again!  Time for me to review my work over the past year and offer some images that have pleased me for one reason or another.

As Olympic year 2012 draws closer, I am working on building up my archive of Olympic Sports and at the same time, trying to find something new to say about the sports and events I cover. There are plenty of action images out there these days and I feel the challenge to do something different is important. I have continued my ‘Art of Sport’ theme at every event I have covered and some of those images feature here along with more traditional action photos.

I’ve enjoyed working with my Nikon D3S camera during the year and feel it has given my work an edge on quality; I’ve also benefitted from working at one or two events with excellent indoor lighting  – though a number of assignments have gone ahead in dismal levels of light. The camera’s ability to produce good quality images in poor light has constantly impressed me, especially when I think back to the days of working with film and colour correction filters!

Back in January I worked at the England versus New Zealand Netball Test match and it was a first outing for the new camera. I start with this image as it is a good example of how well it handles a high ISO rating – in this case 3200 ISO. I could have got away with not pushing the setting so high but wanted to test the camera’s capabilities. The image needed little processing and I was impressed by the sharpness, clarity and lack of noise; the subject is simply expressed but hopefully sums up what the sport is about.

A goal about to be scored during the England versus New Zealand Netball test match at the Nottingham Arena January 2011.

Later in the year I was dismayed by the level of light at the European Fencing Championships but once again was impressed by the camera’s performance. I shot a number of generic images on lower shutter speeds than normal and liked the purposeful walk shown by this French Fencer as he went out to compete. The colour cleaned up beautifully and again, I liked the simplicity of the image.

A cropped generic image of a French fencer on his way to the piste during the 2011 European Fencing Championships in Sheffield.

The same venue (English Institute of Sport in Sheffield) hosted the Aviva Track and Field Indoor Championships and whilst the level of light was higher than at the Fencing, additional lamps added a very strong yellow colour cast in certain areas so the images took quite a bit of cleaning up. I spent some of the time working on images of athletes leaving the starting blocks, aiming to capture that final moment of push off. This was easier to capture at high shutter speeds but less so when working on blurred motion. I really liked this example and there’s no doubt that the red of the athlete’s spiked shoes really helps draw the eye to the sharpest point of the image and that moment of push off I was hoping to capture.

A generic blurred motion image of the feet of a sprinter as he leaves the starting blocks.

It was back to this venue for the English Open Table Tennis too – and a slightly different lighting rig. There was plenty of opportunity for shooting action and many of the world’s best players were there, which was an added bonus. As ever I worked on trying to capture some artistic images, especially cropping tightly on hands or faces. This image appealed to me because of the evocative fingers seemingly showing readiness and concentration.

A cropped generic image of the hand of a Korean Player at the 2011 English Open Table Tennis Championships in Sheffield.

Regular readers will already know my dislike of working at the Fenton Manor venue in Stoke on Trent as the lighting is poor in quality as well as in level. I spent a weekend working at the British Sports Acrobatic Championships there and for much of the time concentrated on moments of balance and stillness, so that I could work at a low shutter speed and keep the ISO rating down. For me the essence of this sport is the trust and confidence that exists between gymnasts – whether in duos, trios or groups. I felt that some tightly cropped images of hands and grips could capture this. Here a women’s group show the complexity of the holds and the utter reliance they have on each other.

A cropped generic image of a women's group competing in the Senior Women's Event at the 2011 British Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships in Fenton Manor Stoke on Trent March 26th.

It was a good year to be living close to Sheffield as another major event – the European Cup Synchronised Swimming Championships – was held at the Ponds Forge International pool during the summer. I’ve always loved shooting this sport and been really impressed by the way it has developed over the years – it is now action packed and technically difficult with almost as many moves occurring out of the water as underneath it. I was really pleased with my shoot and my coverage. I have selected this particular image as I felt it captured so much of what this sport is about – action underwater, trust in a partner or group and the build up to a thrown somersault out of the water.

Pamela Fischer and Anja Nyffeler (Switzerland) compete in the Duet section of the European Synchro Champions Cup atPonds Forge International Sports Centee in Sheffield May 2011.

Sheffield had also played host to the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships early in the year but this time at the Sheffield Arena, where we could work in a good level of light which needed very little colour correction post shoot. I was really struck with the vibrancy of the colours and am looking forward to working at the European Figure Skating Championships there in 2012. There were no photographic positions to get close to the start of the races so I chose to shoot from behind and spent some time working on cropped images which I hope illustrate the concentration of the skaters as they wait for the gun to go off.

A cropped generic image of the boots and blades of a Canadian skater during the 1500 metre heats at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Sheffield

As Olympic Year approaches everyone involved in Gymnastics has been following the fortunes of the British Teams with interest as they have worked this year to qualify. For me it has been an absorbing and inspiring experience to watch them training, competing and going through the roller coaster emotions of good – and not so good – results. During one training session I spotted this tattoo on the arm of one of our gymnasts who is following his dream of competing at an Olympics. I captured several shots but this one of him tightening his handgrips with such determination proved to be the most telling one of all.

A tattoo on the forearm of Theo Seager.

Not long ago I worked at the World Trampoline Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham and again it was another Olympic qualifying event and many of the world’s top performers were there. Clean backgrounds were in short supply but there was one angle I found that gave a good black background – providing you shot early enough in the routine, when they were bouncing at their highest. It was a perfect opportunity to shoot some multiple exposure images and this photographic technique is ideal for showing the movement techniques used in the somersaults. A shutter speed of 800^thwas sufficient to capture this layout somersault at its peak.

A multiplie exposure image of a trampolinist competing at the 28th World Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships 2011 at the National Indoor Arena Birmingham.

My most satisfying event in terms of photographic quality was undoubtedly the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier, France. The light was good and there were some excellent clean, black backgrounds. I hope this first image is a good example of that – but I include it mostly because of the impressive perfection of technique, style and expression shown by the gymnast. Normally if gymnasts wear dark bodysuits it is a real problem to capture the action against a dark background but note how the light has lifted her dark coloured legs and also how the whole body is evenly lit.

Alina Maksymenko (Ukraine) shows a perfect leap while competng with Hoop at the 2011 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier,France.

I have cheated with my next example as I have included two images where there should be one but I wanted to illustrate two ways of shooting the same event with different approaches. With the action shot of Daria Kondakova (Russia), I was trying to capture her dramatic style and felt that cropping and emphasising her face was the way to go. With the image on the right I worked on a low shutter speed; I had seen the gymnast (Chrystalleni Trikomiti of Cyprus) perform this spinning move of the ball on one finger, in an early round of the competition and wanted to see how it would look as a blurred motion image instead. I like the way the slow shutter speed has blurred the movement of her dress with its silver sequins yet still kept some detail of her face and her concentrated focus on the apparatus.

Daria Kondakova (Russia) left and Chrystalleni Trikomiti (Cyprus) right competing with the Ball at the 2011 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships.

The final image from Montpellier always raises a bit of a smile with me; I’d seen this happy snapper sitting in the audience and wanted to try to photograph him with some evidence of the gymnast HE was trying to capture, during a routine. Exposure was a bit awkward as the light dropped off over the audience (great for most of my images but not so good for this one!) so I needed to drop down the shutter speeds enough to be able to photograph him but at the same time make sure I didn’t over expose the competitive area. I was lucky that the slow shutter speed blurred the gymnast’s ribbon and even though we don’t see her we can still tell what the photographer is trying to do.

A photographer in the audience at the 2011 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier,France.

My choice of my twelve best images may not be yours of course but I hope the notes I have added will give some indication of my reasoning.

Olympic Year 2012 is upon us with all the challenges and opportunities it will present. I hope to be in London for what will be my 13^th Olympic Games and I will do my best to convey my photographic experiences both there and through the year.

Finally, all good wishes to my readers for Christmas and 2012 and I close with a seasonal image for you.

An icy river bank with ducks swimming.

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“…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 17^th to 20^th) 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 800^thof 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 800^th.

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 1000^thof 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).

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”

–      Henri Cartier-Bresson

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

I think that I have yet to cover a sports event where the working conditions for photographers have been perfect but the recent World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier, France, came pretty close. For once the event was staged without the intrusive presence of raised advertising boards around the floor area – what a treat! Nice clean angles without incongruous advertising messages behind the subject. From the start it was obvious that there was great potential for good images here.

Evgenia Kanaeva (Russia) winner of six gold medals competing with Ball at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

The light is always a major factor and in the Montpellier Arena, there was a greater quantity light to shoot this photogenic sport than I have previously experienced. It was also possible to find angles which gave good dark backgrounds with just enough light over them to show that there was an audience here – and what an audience it was! – passionate about the sport, knowledgeable and supportive of all the competitors.

The supporters from France wave flags in support at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

The French Gymnastics Federation did an excellent organisational job here and their PR people had thought long and hard about creating a certain ambience and atmosphere, using an attractive colour palette for the look of the event and relating the images used in the pre event advertising to what was on view in the Arena. These effects included two enormous pink balloons hung in the two back corners and pink balls with silver hoops decorating each side of the floor mat. These were the two features that caused some photographic headaches; to keep the giant balloons out of the image required working on a very limited angle. The hoops and balls on the edge of the floor area really affected the look of action images. There would be a nice image of a gymnast competing with Ribbon for instance and this would be rendered somewhat incongruous by the presence of other apparatus at foot level.

The ball and hoop at each side of the floor area.

Large and small balloons and balls affect the look of the image.

Runa Yamaguchi (Japan) competing with Hoop but with extra apparatus in the shot at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Happily after a few days, TV decided it didn’t like the look of this either and the offending items were removed, creating a much cleaner look.

British gymnast Frankie Jones competing with Hoop and Clubs (with and without extra decoration) at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

This was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Olympic Games and a large number of gymnasts (individuals and groups) were there from all over the world. This created many opportunities for photography as the gymnasts perform four routines during the qualifying rounds, each with different apparatus and the best gymnasts then compete the same routines again in the All Around competition and the Apparatus finals.

Sylviya Miteva (Bulgaria) competing with Ribbon at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

In this situation it can be all too easy to slip into the habit of shooting the same thing in the same way for every session and I really relished the chance to work in a different way at each stage of the event – not only changing positions and angles but also concentrating on different aspects of imagery. Straight action was there for the taking – but so too was tightly cropped action focussing on faces and expressions, as well as blurred motion and multiple exposure images.

Close cropping to give an action portrait with the face close to the Ribbon.

Special effects with blurred motion images of gymnasts competing with Ball at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

The same moment frozen in time.

A multi exposure image of a gymnast competing with Clubs at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

This is a sport that really lends itself to shooting generic images and it was good to have the opportunity to really concentrate on achieving these.

A cropped generic image of Lilyana Trofimova (Uzbekhistan) competing with Ribbon at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

A cropped generic image of a gymnast competing with Clubs at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

A cropped generic image of a gymnast competing with Clubs at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

A cropped generic image of a gymnast walking towards the mat before competing.

As the hoops and balls round the floor mat affected the look of action images for the first few days, I decided to take the opportunity to photograph gymnasts in the air as much as possible. This cropped out the ground level obstructions and as there was such a good level of light it was possible to stop even the fastest movements in the air.

China's Deng Senyue is frozen mid air as she releases her Hoop while leaping.

Daria Kondakova (Russia) competing with Ball at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Cynthia Valdez Perez (Mexico) competing with Ball at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Add to this the clean black backgrounds and many images had the look of those shot in a studio. A great opportunity and one not to be missed!

A cropped generic image of a photographer in the audience photographing a gymnast competing with Ribbon at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

A sublime leap from Daria Dmitrieva (Russia) competing with Hoop at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

I like to shoot the different pieces of apparatus in different ways – homing in tight on the Clubs to produce images of the apparatus being tossed and caught with the look of close concentration on gymnasts’ faces.

Angelica Kvieczynski (Brazil) and Olga Bogdanova (Estonia) competing with Clubs at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

An action portrait of Aliya Garayeva (Azerbaijan) competing with the Clubs.

For Ribbon and Hoop I like moments where the gymnast’s face is framed by the spirals and patterns.

Anna Alyabyeva's face is framed by the pattern of the Ribbon.

Melitina Staniouta (Belarus) competing with Ribbon at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics ChampioAustrianships in Montpellier.

For Ball I like shooting tightly cropped to get the apparatus near the face where possible but also like looser images where the Ball has been thrown but is still in the frame.

Dora Vass (Hungary) competing with Ball at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Lioubou Charkashyna (Belarus) left and Melitina Staniouta (Belarus) right, competing with Ball at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Group Exercise produces it’s own special challenges and as the routines have become progressively more complex and difficult it has certainly made it much more difficult to shoot than when I first attempted to do it in the late 1970s. Complex formations, gymnasts being lifted and moved, apparatus being tossed long distances all make it difficult to focus visually and photographically on the key moments. The easiest approach is to shoot loose and thus keep the number of gymnasts (five) in the frame. This will result in capturing peak moments more easily and a zoom lens is very useful here.

The group from Spain competing at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

The Japanese group competing at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

If anything, I like to do my own thing and try to shoot these Group routines tighter; sometimes it is possible to capture all five gymnasts together but often I will focus on groups of two or three, filling the frame as much as possible. Consequently there are moments that are missed but on the other hand when images do work I feel they have more impact. I leave the reader to come to their own conclusions.

The group from Korea competing at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

The Japanese group competing at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

I was in France early enough to shoot some training sessions – always a good opportunity to obtain different images. I do like to try to capture the same move or facial expression in both training and competition as I feel it gives an added dimension to the coverage.

Daria Kondakova in training.

Daria Kondakova in training.

Artistry is shown not only in body movement but also in facial expressions and there are images of emotion to be captured too.

An emotional moment at the end of a successful routine.

Daria Kondakova (Russia) the winner of the silver medal in dramatic mood during her Ball routine.

Caroline Weber (Austria) competing with Hoop at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

It’s small wonder that Rhythmic Gymnastics was the first to sell out for tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games and those who will be there can expect a wonderful display of skill and artistry.

Yuria Onuki (Japan) competing with Ribbon at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

The top nations produced some outstanding work in Montpellier with Russia almost taking a clean sweep of Gold Medals but it was impressive to see the progress achieved by so many other nations – Britain included.

A poster of encouragement for the gymnasts from the British fans at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Britain's Mimi Cesar in action with the Ribbon.

I guess the only depressing aspect for me was (once again) to sit in the middle of photographers working as if they had machine guns in their hands. Hardly anyone seemed to really watch the routines, relate to what was going on and wait for the moment. The approach seems to be to motor drive through the whole thing and look for a good moment afterwards. The post shoot editing process must be a very lengthy affair indeed and I don’t envy them at all! I shot more than I had intended and my own processing has been pretty extended. There are four portfolios of images on my website which I hope illustrate the points I have made here and I trust they are a tribute to what was on show. There is a link below and new images are being added regularly.

The group from Germany at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.

Linking back to the quote at the start of this posting, I had many special moments where mastering an image became a physical and intellectual joy for me. My thanks to the French organisers for creating the opportunity to capture some great images of this attractive sport.

Drama from the World Champion - Evgenia Kanaeva (Russia) the winner of six gold medals in dramatic mood during her Clubs routine.

http://www.langsleysports.com

Tony Sleep

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

Up against the odds

Sports Photography is a great way to earn a living and no matter how tough it has been at times, I have never regretted the decision that this was the profession I wanted to enter and make my way of life. In the last couple of years I’ve not made myself very popular in some quarters on account of my published objections to the copyright theft and image looting that takes place these days, along with the general demise of the photographic profession and working methods employed by many of the amateur photographers who now gain access to any number of major events.

No phishing - or fishing from my sites please.

In respect of the looting of my images, I’m constantly grieved to find my photographs lifted from my blog and website and used willy nilly on other sites, some of them even commercial ones. My heart sinks every time I embark on an image search as I know what the outcome will be and it’s a pretty depressing experience.

Please don't take what is not yours.

As far as I’m concerned, my website and blog constitute my ‘shop front’, where my goods for sale are displayed. I post them in the hope and expectation that professional clients will contact me to arrange a licence for publication and that others will find my words and pictures helpful in their own photography or educational courses. My intention is not to provide a source of free imagery available for upload, download or offload (in much the same way that a shopkeeper doesn’t leave a box of apples on his shop front for people to help themselves to free samples). Let’s face it THAT would be viewed as theft or shoplifting. I wonder why people don’t see photographic looting in the same light?

My website and blog are my 'shopfront'.

It staggers me that some people don’t even have the good manners to contact me with an expression of interest; I do from time to time allow free usage on blogs but it is always with an agreement of terms and conditions.  I’m happy to say that on some occasions, once I’ve contacted an infringer and pointed out the error of their way, they have apologised, taken down the image or we have come to some agreement about a way forward. Thank you Michael in Germany.

There are people out there who have no problem with cropping my copyright/credit line off the image and posting it as if it is their own work (hence the use of the quotation at the end of this posting). Is it down to a lack of morals or a lazy mentality that assumes that the whole of the World Wide Web is a free resource and up for grabs?

Not up for grabs.

I wish I knew and I wish even more that something could be done to protect the interests of working photographers.

Looters need to understand that when I work at major sports events I have had to sign up to a mini contract which outlines what I can and cannot do with the images I shoot. I take this responsibility seriously as I know that if I breach these regulations I can have future accreditation blocked. I also respect the competitors and their rights to have their images used in appropriate settings. If someone helps themselves to one of my images and removes evidence of my copyright and uses that image in an inappropriate way, then I can be held responsible and suffer the consequences.

Another side of the coin is that professional sports photographers have seen their markets taken over almost completely by amateur and special interest photographers who willingly give their images away for free in the hope of seeing their name in print. Their photography may not be up to scratch but picture editors seem happy to settle for saving money even if it means the demise of the professionals who have supplied a good, competitively priced service for many years.

I receive any number of e mails from picture editors, project managers etc claiming to have ‘no budget’ for the photography they want to use and offering me the great opportunity to supply my photographs in return for a credit. I do point out that credit lines don’t help me pay my bills and my queries about whether they and their staff are working unpaid generally go unanswered. I encourage readers to click on this link to read a far more witty and erudite posting on this subject by a much respected colleague.

http://tonysleep.co.uk/no-budget-for-photos

When I post photographs online I want the full impact of the image to be visible so I try to keep my copyright text discreet and in the hope that it will be respected. Perhaps I should now be thinking of other ways of getting my message across.

Liu Xuan (China) performs a spectacular leap on the Balance Beam at the 1997 World Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Finally I leave you with another very relevant quotation.

Copyright theft – “The stealing of work from the talented by someone unable to create something useful themselves.”

Mark Readman.

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self improvement, about being better than you were the day before.”

–      Steve Young

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

Watched by the judges and on her way to another gold medal - Beth Tweddle competes on asymmetric bars at the 2011 British Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool.

In terms of images, I’ve always only felt as good as my last shoot and if I don’t come up with images that please me, I do tend to feel I’ve failed. I’m not boasting about this as I’m sure it’s not a very positive way to work but on the other hand it has always resulted in me going out to the next job determined to make a better fist of it. I’ve learned over the years that there’s a need to be realistic too and to accept that some venues and situations will make it especially difficult to shoot good quality images successfully. These days I’m fortunate in that my days of intensive event coverage are over and I’m able to shoot without the pressure of magazine coverage and the need for certain types of images hanging over me. I really value the freedom and degree of choice that I now have. There is a temptation to get so absorbed in shooting the action that other opportunities are missed and recently, looking through my Gymnastics coverage, I felt that I had concentrated too much on the gymnast and the movement and lost sight of elements surrounding the subject matter.

Gymnasts' essentials.

The British Women’s Championships at the Echo Arena in Liverpool in July provided me with the chance to think again about my approach and to challenge myself to come up with something different.

Both in the frame - gymnast Georgina Hockenhull is scrutinised by a judge at the side of the Floor Exercise mat.

Staging the event in an arena rather than a sports centre hall really gave status to the competition as well as a great opportunity for the gymnasts to perform on a podium in a large venue. This is valuable experience and prepares them for the pressures of competing at International events.

Carly Smith competing on the podium during floor exercise.

A raised experience - Angel Romaeo competes on the Beam.

It was especially pleasing to see our top Juniors and Espoir level gymnasts competing here and they were anything but psyched out by the pressure of the occasion, many of them seeming to relish the opportunity it gave them. The fact that these gymnasts came from all areas of the UK gives an indication of the general health of the sport and the good work that is being done by coaches all over the country.

Impressive work on the bars from Junior gymnast Ruby Harrold.

An artistic floor routine from Shannon Archer.

Photographically the arena offered a range of different positions and angles and screened off areas at the end of the competitive area made for some neutral black curtained backgrounds. When a podium is used, this also helps give photography more impact when shooting from floor level and provides the opportunity to find cleaner angles.

A black curtain in the background and the raised angle offered by the podium give extra impact to images of vault.

I’d worked in this arena last year when it staged an International Netball event and remembered the lighting as being a good level but with a slight yellow colour cast. The lighting for the Gymnastics Championships offered a decent enough level (although not all the rig seemed to be on) – but also quite a new challenge.

Jenni Piches competes under the watchful gaze of the judges but the colour needed quite a bit of correction.

I did my usual lighting tests and checks and was rather bewildered by the shift in colour temperature from one piece of apparatus to another. Over the Floor Exercise mat area the light was flat and rather ‘cold’; just yards away, over the Asymmetric Bars it was very yellow and looking back and forth between the two areas I found it hard to believe I was in the same event. The light dropped off over Beam and was very contrasty over Vault; it just wasn’t possible to set a White Balance that would work for each area so in the end I opted for Auto and resigned myself to a lot of processing after the shoot. Off the podium at floor level the colour shifted again so images of gymnasts with their coaches, waiting to compete, presented another correction challenge.

A difficult one to colour correct - Liz Kincaid advises her junior gymnasts at the edge of the podium area.

A similar colour correction problem on the floor - Michelle Walduck with Loriah James.

I’m still mystified why apparently similar lamps should behave in such an odd way and wondered if some had been replaced (thus giving off a different colour temperature) or if they were being run at less than full power, which would have the same effect. It was interesting too that preparing the images for web use was a challenge and I seemed to get better results leaving the colour space as RGB rather than switching to sRGB. The images posted here and their variable nature will probably illustrate my point.

Some areas like the vault run up, needed little correction.

The light dropped off over Balance Beam - Rebecca Tunney competing.

Aside from needing to shoot some decent action I decided that I’d like to feature faces more than usual – not just the portraits of the gymnasts themselves but also of their coaches and the judges.

A portrait image of Angel Romaeo during training.

Focussing on the judge rather than the gymnast.

Coach Christine Still watches her gymnast compete on the Bars.

Where possible I tried to frame images so that the gymnast was being watched either by the judges or their coach in the hope that this approach would provide a different aspect of the Gymnastics story. This worked best shooting from above as the faces were lifted towards the subject – but of course, not all gymnastic movements shoot well from this angle and it was necessary to wait for the right moment but I was pleased with the different look I achieved. I wouldn’t shoot every event this way but it made a change from the worm’s eye view I have tended to favour over the years.

My usual angle for shooting action - from a low position and against a clean background.

I was impressed by the artistic work on show (particularly from the younger gymnasts) and found that floor exercise shot from above lent itself to some expressive movements and poses.

A double action of artistic moves from Gabrielle Jupp while competing on Floor Exercise - shot from a raised position.

I can’t say that I was exactly impressed with my shoot, apart from one or two images but it showed that you can never be complacent about your experience and knowledge; conditions can change and you need to adapt. Arena lighting can vary from one event to another and the level is often dependent on whether TV coverage is happening or not. Next year the British Men will also compete in this venue at the same time as the Women and as it is a final event before selection of the team to represent Great Britain at the London Olympic Games, it will attract maximum interest. My hope is that TV will be there and the lighting rig will be fully on and the competition area evenly lit.

Flying to victory. British Champion for the second year running - Hannah Whelan in action on the asymmetric bars - shot from above.

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

–      John Wooden

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

A generic image of the hands of a fencer competing in the Men's Epee event at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

I’ve tended to flatter myself that I’ve always aimed to produce good sports photographs in terms of the subject matter and the quality of the image itself. In my days of shooting film, I rarely shot above 1200 asa with black and white and never above 640 asa with colour reversal film; later on when some of the better quality colour negative film was produced I indulged myself by shooting at 800 asa. Old habits die hard and even with digital photography, I try to keep the ISO settings to a level that will give a quality look to the image and in an effort to avoid excessive noise I try to keep below 2000 ISO even in bad light.

A surprisingly colourful generic image of the wheel of the chair belonging to Robert Citerne (France) at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

A session at the recent European Fencing Championships in Sheffield made me rethink my approach and adopt methods that could be said to be ‘going against the grain’ for me. The light for the daytime sessions was astonishingly bad, with any daylight blocked from the field of play and most of the lighting coming from fluorescents. For the finals in the evenings, the lighting situation was changed and this is standard practice at fencing events but I was there during the day and needed to come away with the best images I could in the given circumstances. I’ve always felt that it’s important to keep on learning and trying new approaches; photographic techniques change and move on and I need to keep up with it all and not get complacent. I learned so much during my early career but digital photography is a whole new game and I know how much more I still need to learn.

A generic image of an Epee and connection wires at the 2011 European Fencing Championships in Sheffield.

At 3200 ISO I could just about squeeze 400^that f2.8 – adequate for action but not always enough to freeze the sudden lunges and fast arm movements that happen in this sport. It also means that the depth of field is limited, making accurate focussing crucial and it also means that shooting the bout end on resulted in one fencer being out of focus – not necessarily a bad thing in terms of the impact of an image. Shooting side on would help in this situation but the barriers were pretty crowded with spectators plus there were the electronic scoreboards at the sides of the piste to contend with as well.  However, I decided to give the D3S a good run for its money at this setting, even leaving it at this ISO when I shot more generic images (when I could have gone down the setting somewhat as I was shooting stationery objects for the most part). I really wanted to see what the camera could produce in such bad conditions – and was very pleasantly surprised. Yes, there is noise and the images needed careful processing but I was astonished to see what came out of the session. The D3S really is an outstanding camera. The colours cleaned up far better than I’d expected and the noise does not really detract from the subject matter. I was even more surprised to find that the images converted for web use easily without needing much additional colour correction; perhaps I’ve been giving fluorescent lighting a bad press recently.

Action from the Men's Epee Team Competition between Italy and the Netherlands with Enrico Garozzo and Siebr Tigchelaar in action.

A generic image of the feet of fencers competing at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

Aside from the lighting, the main challenge was the crowded field of play.

The French men's team celebrate a win in the Epee event surrounded by spectators and coaches.

The wheelchair event is surrounded by supporters, helpers, spectators and coaches at the 2011 European Fencing Championships in Sheffield July 18th.

Finding an angle that gave a clean line for capturing the action was not easy. With several pistes in use, along with areas for training and the arena space allocated for the Wheelchair Fencing events, finding an angle between all the coaches, supporters, team mates and officials was difficult. Even a position by the barriers surrounding any piste was usually spoiled by messy backgrounds and general untidiness – though sometimes the faces of teammates watching a tense bout really added to the impact of the image.

An action image of Matt Trager (Italy) and Bas Verwijlen (Netherlands) competing in the Men's Epee event and watched by their teammates at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

The arena at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield is an indoor athletics track so it was possible to pull back from the crowded floor area and shoot from a slightly raised position which certainly helped get a cleaner look to the action. I did try shooting from the top of the spectator seating area but this angle wasn’t steep enough to give the look I wanted even when I cropped the image to get rid of distracting heads and bodies. Fencing usually provides plenty of emotional and celebration images but these tended to lose impact when shot from above.

A moment of celebration from Jean Lucenay (France) competing in the Men's Epee event at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

The area for the Wheelchair events was very crowded indeed and it was virtually impossible to get a decent angle for action photography so I tended to shoot quite a bit in the way of generic and cropped images which hopefully gave a feel for the atmosphere.

A generic image of Vivien Mills (Great Britain) waiting to compete in the Wheelchair event at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

I spent quite a while shooting generic/artistic images and finding a good angle for these with a clean background was as much of challenge as it was for the action photography. I looked around for images of Fencing equipment on the floor with the general detritus left after a competition and also wanted images that focussed on the protective clothing worn by competitors.

A generic image of the equipment left behind by a competitor at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

A generic image of the hand and mask of a fencer competing at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

A generic image of the hands of a fencer connecting to the electronic system before competing in the Men's Epee event at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

Although the training area to the side of the hall was very gloomy indeed with very messy backgrounds, some interesting images were available.

An action image of a fencer during training at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

An action image of a Hungarian fencer training with her coach at the 2011 European Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield July 18th.

I left the venue not very confident that I’d had a decent shoot but my spirits lifted once I loaded the images into the computer and saw how nicely they cleaned up. As an ex Fencer ( rather more years ago than I care to remember) it was great to see the sport at this level and many of the competitors will be in contention at the London Olympics. It is gratifying too to see a sport which sees its disabled section as part and parcel of Fencing itself, rather than something to be organised separately.

Fencers leave the Field of Play at the end of their event.

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“In Photography light is everything, and in light is its capacity for utter clarity.”

–      Paul Theroux

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

Last weekend as I drove across the border between Derbyshire and Staffordshire, I spotted the boundary sign with the motto ‘Staffordshire, The Creative County”. A suitable region to host the 2011 British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships then!

Rhythmic Gymnastics - a truly creative sport - a cropped generic image of Olivia Davies (Llanelli Academy)

It’s been quite a busy period for the sport with major events and, for the younger ones, the end of the school year with everything that brings in its wake. It was interesting to see that several girls had brought exam revision to fill their time between training sessions and competing.

Leah Munday (HSG Swallows) - a promising young gymnast.

Those who have read previous postings of mine will know that Fenton Manor is far from being a favourite venue for photography for me and I do find it frustrating to see great action images that can only be achieved at a high ISO setting, with the ensuing digital noise. Thankfully on this occasion the event organisers had persuaded the venue to put on a little more light than usual so the quantity of light had improved somewhat. Of course light quality is also an important aspect of the situation and the fluorescent tubes installed here tend to give poor colour rendition and a rather ‘ flat’ look to the photographs.

Careful processing of lighter colours to give impact in the final black and white version - Helena Bailey (Stockport) competing with Clubs.

This year I was determined to keep the ISO rating as low as I could but this meant shooting at a low shutter speed too – 320^thof a second for the most part. Fast action (leaps, spins etc) had to be hit spot on or the moment was missed.

Hitting the moment at 320th of a second - Maya Lucas (Esprit) mid leap.

Senior Champion Frankie Jones (Birmingham), mid spin at 320th second.

I decided early on that I would probably shift the images to black and white when preparing them for the web and was in fact pleased with the way they looked and the clarity of the images.

Frankie Jones (City of Birmingham) winner of the British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships 2011 competing with Ball.

Paul Theroux (quoted above) is right – ‘in Photography light is everything’ – and it is important to use what is available to your best advantage. The weekend’s shoot turned out to be quite a blast from the past for me and took me back to the early days of my career when I shot black and white film almost exclusively. What I love about this medium is the impact it has on the subject, how it draws the eye to the essence of the image and how it lends drama, clarity and dynamism. Colour photography in the right light can be equally impressive but great care must be taken to avoid including objects that can be distracting to the eye, purely because they are a different colour from the subject. The same is true of black and white photography of course but so often the background drops away, leaving the subject perfectly placed to give its best impact.

A background that is less distracting in black and white than colour - Rhiannon Elphick (Llanelli Academy) shot from floor level.

It was interesting to work in Photoshop to achieve the best conversion I could, experimenting with added contrast as well as fixing the black and white points on Levels. In a way it’s a shame to miss out on the colourful dresses worn by the gymnasts and I needed to be careful that the paler, pastel colours didn’t end up looking washed out in the final black and white image. Vibrant reds go to a mid tone grey of course and can look flat but it helps to be able to tweak the different colours in the Black and White adjustment area, darkening or lightening them to give the best effect.

Stephanii Sherlock (Esprit) wearing a pale pink and grey dress which needs careful conversion to the black and white version.

I spent a little time shooting at floor level but found the backgrounds very distracting so for most of the event, shot from a balcony. This gave a much cleaner background but of course some moves, especially leaps and jumps, can lose impact as the impression of height is lessened by the angle.

Frankie Jones (Birmingham) shot from above. A clean angle gives impact to the moment.

Leaps can lose some impact shot from above but Karen Goshen's Hoop helps to give an impression of height.

During the three day event, there was time to shoot both action and generic images and I felt that converting them to black and white really increased their impact.

A blurred motion image of Elisha Williams (Llanelli Academy shot at 20th second 200 ISO.

A cropped generic image of a gymnast's hand, foot and Rope.

A cropped image of a dramatic pose at the start of Chloe Briggs' Ball routine.

Cropped generic images of Jade Wright and Karen Goshen.

Once again I was impressed by how much progress has been made and it was encouraging to see the number of clubs producing good young gymnasts – and from all over the country too.

Scotland's Lauren Brash (West Lothian) performs artistically with the Ribbon.

British Gymnastics has a great reputation for its developmental work in sport for the disabled. At Fenton there were three classes of competition events for those with physical and learning disabilities. The standard to work was impressive and it was a delight to see the happiness on the faces of the gymnasts as they went up to collect their medals.

Michelle Hon (Falcon Spartak) with her coach before competing with Hoop and then during her routine in the GMPD junior event at the 2011 British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships at Fenton Manor June 25th.

However, this was definitely the ‘Frankie Jones’ event! In a class of her own, this great young gymnast went on to take her fifth British title – an outstanding achievement and another step on the journey to London 2012. Her work was a great example for the younger gymnasts and I feature some of the images here.

Frankie Jones (City of Birmingham) wins her 5th British title.

Frankie Jones (City of Birmingham) competing with Clubs during the 2011 British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships at Fenton Manor.

Advice before competing - Frankie Jones with her coach.

A full portfolio is available to view on my website (link below) and all images are available in colour or black and white (though I know which are my favourites!).

A cropped generic image of Helena Stiles (Stockport) competing with Clubs during the 2011 British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships at Fenton Manor

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“Success is the ability to go from one failure (Challenge) to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

–      Winston Churchill

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

A cropped generic expressive image of Helena Bailey (Stockport) at the start of her Ribbon routine.

My latest assignment working in Rhythmic Gymnastics, was an enjoyable follow on from my recent efforts at the European Cup Synchronised Swimming Championships in Sheffield.

Suppleness, flexibility, grace and artistry from Stephanii Sherlock (Esprit) during her Ball routine.

I really enjoy shooting these kind of artistic sports and am always a bit disappointed that they may be construed as somehow less of a true sport than say, Rugby. The athletic skills are tremendous, the training is tough and the aesthetic qualities are a photographer’s dream. I suspect that come London 2012, both these sports will assume their rightful place in the Olympic Programme and attract huge TV viewing figures.

Skilled control of the Hoop from Helena Bailey (Stockport).

I trust Winston Churchill would not mind me adapting the quote heading this posting (my addition is in brackets); it was an appropriate thought for my current work situation. I’ve always relished the challenges presented by Sports Photography and while over thirty years in the job have ensured experience in all kinds of situations I do find that even now there are new approaches and methods of working that keep me on my toes. Sport motivates and inspires me; consequently I want to produce images that do justice to what I see happening out there on the field of play or in the training session.

A generic image of the gymnasts' apparatus during a warm up session.

Fast reactions are an essential quality for the sports photographer and of course, as you get older, these tend to slow down. I find this a real frustration but accept that this is a new challenge for me and there’s no doubt that digital equipment extends the working life of a photographer. Autofocus on professional level cameras and lenses is amazing and I know that were I still shooting with manual focus I would not capture many of the images of which I am still capable.

A cropped image of Catherine McNicol (Birmingham) during her Ribbon routine.

Knowing the sport you are shooting really helps along with anticipation of what is going to happen. You can be prepared and ready for the moment without wondering what might be coming up next.

Chloe Hartshorn (Elena) with Ball.

Working at the English Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships at GMAC in Birmingham on June 12th presented me with the situation of making a compromise; it’s quite a while since I shot the sport in half decent light so I wanted to capture nice quality images while keeping the ISO setting as low as was feasible. On the other hand, the sport requires a reasonably high shutter speed and normally I like to use 500^th second as a minimum – higher if conditions allow. One of the benefits of digital photography is the ability to push the ISO up, maintain decent quality and work with high shutter speeds – in fact it’s possible to miss the peak of the action and still freeze movement. Personally I feel this has an adverse effect on some images – the competitor can seem to have poor technique when in fact the photographer has missed the moment but still frozen the movement.

Maya Lucas (Esprit) caught mid leap while competing with the Hoop.

GMAC is an impressive new high performance facility and the lighting that has been installed utilises high colour rendering fluorescent tubes. The level was reasonable and the competitive area was evenly lit. I took a colour temperature reading and set the camera White Balance to that – but later in the day decided to switch to Auto White Balance as I wasn’t 100% sure I was getting it right. This of course is not to be recommended as it meant more time sorting it out in the computer! Whilst the light was even, it was also rather flat and lacking in contrast so this was another area that needed addressing in Photoshop.

Flat lighting called for some increase in contrast - Keziah Gore (Canterbury) with Ball.

I decided to work at 1600 ISO but at this level I could only achieve a shutter speed of 400; this meant that movement had to be hit at its peak moment. Even so a little movement blur on feet or hands can still be seen but to be honest I feel it gives more of a sense of speed and motion than a completely frozen subject. No doubt many will disagree. A certain amount of natural light comes into the gymnasium area so as the afternoon progressed, the light level dropped a little and I pushed the ISO up to 2000.

Hitting the moment - a spectacular leap from Megan Balabey (HSG Swallows).

There was the possibility of shooting at floor level and I did a few training and warm up shots here but it was difficult to keep the backgrounds clean so I opted to shoot from the top row of spectator seating. For the most part this angle gave a clean look to the images and as the gymnasts usually focus upwards, it guaranteed nice facial expressions.

A clean background with a gymnast looking up - Gabriela Caruso (Esprit) competing with Clubs.

A clean image of Megan Balabey (HSG Swallows) competing with Ball.

Gemma Rand (Esprit) shot from above.

I also looked for images before, during and after their routines and captured one or two nice moments between Gymnast and Coach.

Happy and confident - Keira Miller (South Essex) with her coach.

A cropped generic image of Keira Miller (South Essex) about to compete with Ball.

I used my 300 f 2.8 throughout the competition and occasionally switched to DX format to pull in detail.

Pulling in detail with DX format - Scarlett Payne (Coventry) with Hoop.

Focus on expression with DX format - Natasha Izzard (Stockport) with Ball.

I enjoyed shooting the action but also looked for generic images too and was especially pleased with some of the cropped photos of faces, feet and hands.

The face of Keziah Gore (Canterbury) during warm up.

Hands and feet - a generic image of Chloe Picton about to compete with Clubs.

A cropped generic image of Robyn Bate (Canterbury) at the start of her Hoop routine.

A yellow ribbon - Stephanii Sherlock (Esprit) at the start of her routine.

One hand, one foot, one hoop - Scarlett Payne (Coventry) in action.

I was really impressed with the work of the young gymnasts who showed good technique and true artistry in their routines; as a nation we are slowly moving up the World rankings in this sport and some of these girls looked to have a promising future ahead of them.

A promising young gymnast - Megan Balabey (HSG Swallows).

Impressive flexibility and control from Gemma Rand (Esprit).

My thanks to the organisers and volunteers for their work at the event and the welcome they gave me – and as ever to the gymnasts and coaches for creating the images.

Which piece next?

I have posted a full portfolio of images from this event on my website:-

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2011

“Compete like you’re first; train like you’re second.”

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

A moment of pure artistry from the Ukrainian team.

I first photographed the sport of Synchronised Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, where the event was held in an outdoor pool bathed in Californian sunshine. I found it an absorbing sport to shoot with its mix of athleticism, fitness, aquatic skills and artistry and over the years it has been interesting to see how it has developed and changed. The recent European Champions Cup event held in Sheffield was a perfect showcase for this spectacular sport and a photographer’s dream, providing some images that illustrated the sport at its best.

The Russian team perform a spectacular thrown somersault during their duet routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Perfect timing from the Spanish team.

It’s a pity that Synchro is not taken more seriously in certain areas of the sporting community – and in the media too; there are few sports that require such a wide variety of skills and the training is certainly the most intensive I have seen in some time. Synchro is now a very athletic sport with swimmers needing gymnastic and acrobatic skills as well as a whole range of underwater techniques, plus a mastery of choreography, teamwork and artistry.

Giulia Lapi and Mariangela Peerupato (Italy) during their duet routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The Ukrainian team during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The Russian team during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

When I first saw the sport I was amazed by the underwater skills that could be seen and thought it would be great to be able to be down there with a camera. What is seen on the surface is only half of the story. These days TV coverage can be guaranteed to show footage of action below the surface of the water.

The Spanish team underwater during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

A generic image of the Russian team during training at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

In Sheffield I opted to shoot from a high position in the hope of being able to record some underwater moments as well as ensure a clean background to the  pictures on the surface of the water; given that there were advertising boards around the pool I aimed to have these in the picture as little as possible, although inevitably there was some reflection of them in the water.

A generic image of the toes of a Russian synchronised swimmer about to disappear underwater during training at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre Sheffield.

Olivia Allison and Jenna Randall (Great Britain) compete in the Duo/Duet section of the European Synchro Champions Cup in Sheffield

In an ideal world it would be nice to shoot this sport in a pool with no lane markings but having said that, the wave patterns added something extra to some images and of course as with all water sports, the droplets of water coming off a swimmer as they rotated in the air really emphasised their movement.

The Russian team during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The Swiss team during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

My main aim was to try to capture images that demonstrated the acrobatic nature of Synchro but I also hoped to come away with a selection of images that showed the competitors working in complete harmony as well as a selection of generic and abstract ones.

A generic image of the group from Belarus compete in the Team section of the European Synchro Champions Cup in Sheffield May 2011.

A generic image of the feet of the Belarus group during their group routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Natalia Ischenko and Svetlana Romashina (Russian Federation) perform a spectacular thrown somersault during their duet routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The TV lighting installed at the Ponds Forge International Pool in Sheffield gives a good level of light and some natural daylight comes in through windows in the roof, so lighting levels and colour balance can shift from time to time. However as the installed lights were more or less the strongest illumination I decided not to use Auto White Balance but took my trusty old Minolta Colormeter and set the camera White Balance to the reading it gave in degrees Kelvin. I was pretty impressed with the images that came off the card – as usual I was shooting Raw and Adobe RGB 98. Most images needed little colour or exposure correction; the most frustrating technical aspect came afterwards when I was preparing the images as web ready sRGB Jpegs, when I found it difficult to recapture the vibrant colours and accurate skin tones that could be seen on the original images. This is not a problem I usually have and can only put it down to the nature of the pool lighting but it’s something I need to look into and work on again, so my apologies for the variable colour in the featured images. When I came to prepare images for my website I decided to work from Adobe RGB98 and not bother with shifting to sRGB; on the whole I found the results more pleasing though the skin tones came up a little warm for my taste. However colour correcting fake tan on skin is never an easy procedure! Those of you who are interested in image processing might like to compare the images posted here with those on my website (link below).

The Belarus group during their group routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Judging panels were on two sides of the pool so the routines performed by the swimmers were not ‘fronted’ in any one direction; this proved useful as the lighting at Ponds Forge comes more from one side than the other; shooting on the non rigged side guarantees you have to work with over a stop less light.

Hanna Besprozvannikh and Ekateryna Trishkevich (Belarus) compete in the Team section of the European Synchro Champions Cup in Sheffield May 2011.

This was not a huge event in terms of numbers of competitors but all the top European nations were represented and it’s obvious that the event in London 2012 will be hotly contested as well as popular with spectators and viewers.

The group from Great Britain in an artistic formation while competing in the Team section of the European Synchro Champions Cup in Sheffield May 2011.

There were competitions for duets and also for teams (of eight). Whilst I really enjoyed photographing both, I have to say the team competition was a real delight as well as a challenge. The group formations constantly changed, there were moments of pure artistry and expression and the thrown somersaults and acrobatic elements impressive, needing anticipation and fast reactions from the photographer.

The Russian team during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The Russian team during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Ona Carbonell and Andrea Fuentes (Spain) compete in the Duet section of the European Synchro Champions Cup atPonds Forge International Sports Centee in Sheffield May 2011.

Photographing the swimmers while they were underwater provided some interesting images with the effect of the waves altering body shape; colour balance shifted the lower in the water they were, so these pictures needed more processing in Photoshop. It’s just fascinating to see how the groups position themselves under the surface as they prepare to throw or lift one or more of their teammates out of the water. I like the juxtaposition of the ‘before and after’ look to these images.

Pamela Fischer and Anja Nyffeler (Switzerland) compete in the Duet section of the European Synchro Champions Cup at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield May 2011.

The group from Great Britain set up a throw from underwater while competing in the Team section of the European Synchro Champions Cup in Sheffield May 2011.

The group from Great Britain show the resulting somersault while competing in the Team section of the European Synchro Champions Cup in Sheffield May 2011.

The Italian team underwater during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

I aimed to get some cropped images of hands, feet and faces and it is impressive to see how some groups achieved perfect synchronicity (if that is the right word!).

Natalia Ischenko and Svetlana Romashina (Russian Federation) strike a matching pose at the start of their duet routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Anastasia Gloushkov and Inna Yoffe (Israel) during their duet routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

A cropped generic image of the hands of a competitor using grips to fasten her hair decoration at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.

A cropped generic image of the hands of a competitor using grips to fasten her hair decoration at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.

Watching and photographing training was equally worthwhile and provided some different images. The Russians in particular have taken this sport to a whole new level and observing them in the training sessions gave proof of why this is the case. Apart from their technical mastery and sheer artistry, they trained harder and longer, constantly practising their most difficult moves. The quote I used at the start of this posting is especially apt in this respect I feel.

The Italian team during training at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Italy perform a spectaculat double throw during their routine at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The Russian coach closely watches one of the complex moves performed by her team during training at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

Practice makes perfect. The Russian team during training at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The Russian team during training at the 2011 European Synchro Champions Cup at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

I came away from the event with a real sense of appreciation for the skill and talent of the swimmers and their coaches – and gratitude for the great images they produced for me.

Nea Hannula and Kati Rinkainen (Finland) compete in the Duet section of the European Synchro Champions Cup atPonds Forge International Sports Centee in Sheffield May 2011.

Please respect the copyright of the images and text in this posting.

http://www.langsleysports.com

© Eileen Langsley 2010