Fierce

Well, during the months of February thru April, every weekend I shoot what is called winterguard. Winterguard is basically indoor colorguard. These shows are held indoors, mostly in high school gymnasiums. Each colorguard program last anywhere from 5-7 minutes long. I thoroughly enjoy shooting pageantry arts. It doesn't get old, especially when you get great performances and the performers are really into the show they are performing.

In  this photo, I decided to shoot in landscape orientation, rather than the usual portrait orientation I usually do for rifle shots. I did this because I saw a nice line trailing into the back. The added bonus was her fierce look and how the rifles were all basically aligned.  This was caught in a sequence of action shots I fired off. Therefore, they were not posing and just standing there like that.

During the early portion of the winterguard season, it is the most challenging for me to photograph. I have not seen the shows and a lot of the shows, the performers are still learning and are not quite finished. So I have to rely solely on anticipation. As the season progresses, I will have seen the shows a few times and hopefully remember the next time I shoot, what shots I can get. That is a challenge itself, as there are over 300 guards I photograph, by the end of the season. So my memory is the biggest challenge of all.

For the technical side, high school gyms are notorious for terrible lighting. I am usually shooting at 3200 or 6400 ISO, at f2.8. I try to maintain a shutter speed of 1/500sec. We are not allowed to use strobes, because of the restrictions to ensure safety to the performers, when they toss rifles or sabers. I have to say that this is one of the most challenging subjects I have shot in photography. Hands down! I can't think of too many sports which are as unpredictable, fast, and just all over the place like this is. I would even challenge the best sports photographers on the NFL or NBA sidelines to try and shoot this and under these conditions.

With all that said, I really love when I get great shots. This was one of my favorites from the day and not bad for the first competition of the winterguard season.