Beauty and the Beast

Note: I'm dropping the "MM##" and ".jpg" tags at the beginning and end of every entry. Those were lame and tedious.

I just want to get the photos up, so captions and camera strategy info will come later. A few of the sequences will seem repetitive, but right now I don't care. I'll change it later.

Photos by Michael Mitra/OU Student Media Features

Enjoy!

I'm not sure if Breia was looking at me or something in my general direction. This was about as good as quality gets when shooting people that far away and cropping in so much.

127 lbs. freshman Greg Cannon wrestles Cal Poly's Boris Novachkov. I caught a brief moment of unfiltered expression. Nikon D200, 300mm, 1/320 at F/4, ISO 800, WB Sunny, Vivid

Cannon found his stride and made quick work of Novachkov. Nikon D200, 300mm, 1/640 at f/4, ISO 800, WB Sunny, Vivid, PS CS3 grayscale and level edit.

I don't get to shoot with the 300mm that often, so this was a real treat. The 200mm zoom was nice, but it didn't really put me in the action like I'd hoped. Sure, I can crop in a lot, but I'll lose a lot of detail in the process. The 300mm brought me in. Two drawbacks though - the Nikon 300mm I was using was an old f/4 model with a crazy "focus hunting" problem. A modern 300mm f/2.8 or 400mm f/2.8would have been ideal in this situation.

OU gymnast Ashley Jackson on uneven bars. Canon 1D Mark IIN, 200mm, 1/400 at f/2.8, ISO 1000, PS CS3 level edit.

OU gymnast Caitlin Hinkins on uneven bars. Canon 1D Mark IIN, 200mm, 1/400 at f/2.8, ISO 1000, PS CS3 level edit.

I used manual focus and focused on the bar for both pictures. If not, the auto focus would "focus hunt" as the gymnasts moved around the bars.

OU gymnast Mary Mantle sits in line for the awards presentation. Canon 1D Mark IIN, 200mm, 1/500 at f/2.8, ISO 640, PS CS3 level edit.

OU Gymnast Kristin Smith on beam. Canon 1D Mark IIN, 85mm, 1/400 at f/2.8, ISO 1000, PS CS3 level edit.

I'm starting to learn different techniques for shooting certain gymnastics skills. Beam, for instance, forced me to use a different strategy than the usual auto focus. I didn't want to use manual focus since there is a lot of inaccuracy and she would be moving in and out of the focus window. I couldn't use auto focus for the same reason as uneven bars - too much movement and not enough light for the focus engine to lock on, so it would "focus hunt" the whole time. I ended up using custom auto focus box, and placing it at their chest (the sparkly sequins gave the auto focus engine something reliable to focus on. The red of their leotards didn't have enough contrast for the focus to lock on). This proved to be beneficial.

OU gymnast Candace Cindell sits as her teammates are recognized for winning individual events. Canon 1D Mark IIN, 200mm, 1/500 at f/2.8, ISO 650, PS CS3 grayscale and level edit.