joshlucass: Sport meets Art in France

Art meets Sport in France.

?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.

Evgenia Kanaeva (Russia) winner of five 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.

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.

Plenty of opportunity for action images.

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 Evgenia Kanaeva (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.

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.