Jamfest Cheerleading...

tjl1388

Had a great time. The Girls did really good. Brought home 4 first place banners out of 6 teams. Sorry about the wm..I need to get off my lazy butt and change it to 2010.



I cut off the feet and the faces are overexposed but I can't resist the faces.

ian408

Nice work!

I guess this has really become quite the event these days. I see a lot more shots from events lately.

Rocketman766

Once again, great to see more cheer in the forums. 4 out of 6... that is great! I love the dance sequences, some of the best faces and shots come from that. Funny thing is, I didn't realize until looking at these that the floor was purple, and we were at Jamfest in Indy this year! Speaking of color, are your girls just really tan or did you shoot really warm? Also, the pink in the girls bows looks computer generated to me, over saturated? I only ask because I am still learning.... I should get around to posting some more pics too...

tjl1388

Rocketman766 wrote:

Once again, great to see more cheer in the forums. 4 out of 6... that is great! I love the dance sequences, some of the best faces and shots come from that. Funny thing is, I didn't realize until looking at these that the floor was purple, and we were at Jamfest in Indy this year! Speaking of color, are your girls just really tan or did you shoot really warm? Also, the pink in the girls bows looks computer generated to me, over saturated? I only ask because I am still learning.... I should get around to posting some more pics too...

Most of them are pretty tan but I do shoot pretty saturated. I only shoot for my gym and they like it that way. Every time I bring it down a notch or two they say they like it the other way.

The only problem that I continue to have is that everything seems really soft. Is that due to the high ISO? I usually shoot around 2500-3200..I have to to get anywhere near clear. I want some more detail in the mix.

Rocketman766

I don't claim to be an expert, nor do I know anything about Nikon equipment, but I have been told that when shooting at 2.8 with my Canon 70-200, it is a bit soft and gets sharp at 4.0 which we know won't really work at the cheer comps. High ISO, I don't know if that affects the sharpness or not, maybe someone else will chime in and give us both a heads up on that one...

10smark

Yes, at higher ISO's you are going to lose a little sharpness due to more noise or grain. That is why you usually want to shoot at the lowest ISO possible. Of course, in this situation, that is not possible. In addition, wider aperture (shallow depth of field) and slower than ideal shutter speeds = tough to get very sharp pics. If you had the possibility to shoot strobes, this would improve conditions, but at events such as this that is usually not possible.

As such, you did a great job once again with your comp cheer pics. This is certainly a difficult sport to shoot with the fast action and poor lighting conditions. You pics look good to me!

chest2tank

Great photography!


But....ugh.........Papyrus

tjl1388

chest2tank wrote:

Great photography!


But....ugh.........Papyrus

That's twice in my recent post you've given that opinion. Might I inquire as to why or is it simply opinion?... I'm not upset, just curious if I am missing something?

I would love to have a faded fancy wm but it's just not in my 18hr day to figure out how yet.


Thank You everyone for the compliments.

10smark, you gonna be in town March 7th? I might need some help at a comp. I have to get it approved through the gym first but I just want to expand coverage. With 30+ girls in some groups and only two and a half minutes per team I am still missing some of them. PM me your contact information and what you would charge for something like that.

chest2tank

tjl1388 wrote:

That's twice in my recent post you've given that opinion. Might I inquire as to why or is it simply opinion?... I'm not upset, just curious if I am missing something?

I think your photography is fantastic. You capture the moments very well. That font is just so overused and cliche at this point, and I don't think it represents your work. Font set is important to any company, but especially photographers. How we say what we say is probably at least as important as the intended content of our message.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to give you a "poop sandwich" as Stewie would say. I really do think your work is exemplary.

tjl1388

chest2tank wrote:

I think your photography is fantastic. You capture the moments very well. That font is just so overused and cliche at this point, and I don't think it represents your work. Font set is important to any company, but especially photographers. How we say what we say is probably at least as important as the intended content of our message.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to give you a "poop sandwich" as Stewie would say. I really do think your work is exemplary.

Not a problem at all, I appreciate your honesty. I have been using it for years and have just grown accustomed to it.

I'll get around to changing it one of these days.

ian408

If it's one thing I hate, it's the font police (and the watermark police for that matter).

Please, focus on the photography. Leave the fonts and watermarks out of it.


Thanks.

David Evertsen

Very nice shots, I often wonder at the cheer events if they put the horrible looking backgrounds up solely to give parents taking pictures a hard time taking pictures. The shots would obviously be better with a wonderful clean background like I get for competitive dance. What do you use for WB with all that fun in the background???

tjl1388

David Evertsen wrote:

What do you use for WB with all that fun in the background???

I usually come out before hand and set it or since I only shoot my teams I set it while shooting some of the other teams.