Wanamaker Photography Blog

Behind The Scenes Of A Photography Studio

Two weeks ago, at the Minisink Valley Cheerleading Competition, we were asked to attend the Pine Bush Cheerleading Competition, which took place this past Saturday. It was like Deja Vu! A lot of the same teams that were at the Minisink Competition were also at this one … with the same routines and the same music. However, there were some new teams that attended and we were able to get some great shots of the girls (and guys) during their performances.

There was one group during the morning session that was comprised of absolutely adorable kids. Known as Take One, this group had one little male cheerleader who looked more nervous to be out on the mat than anything. Over all, they put on a great performance!

As the day progressed, we snapped some great shots of the older performers as well …

Including some of those funny “frozen face” shots …

One of the other photos I captured was inspired by a local press photographer (Chet Gordon) who we occassionally run into at some of the events we attend. A recent blog post he had showed two shots of competitors hanging together during two different events that he attended. Each shot was composed of just their legs and feet as they huddled together.

The shot I captured was in similar fashion except it was the patterns that caught my eye …

Overall, it was a great day and we had a lot of fun capturing the images!

This past Saturday, we attended our first Cheerleading Competition hosted by Minisink Valley. While we’ve photographed cheerleaders at football games before, this competition turned out to be a completely different animal for us!

We setup in the morning for portraits in the far corner of the gym and found a nice spot behind the judges to video record all of the performances. We had a slightly smaller crew this time with Sean working the video camera, Loretta and Jenny at the table and myself shooting action shots during the event.

As things got underway, I quickly found that I was trying to anticipate the next flip, kick or jump. Needless to say, I did so with very little luck! Everything was extremely fast paced and moved over every inch of the mat. As the day went on, Jenny would join me in front of the judges and would shoot group shots to get the action as it happened while I would shoot closeups on a few of the competitors. Some of the shots we captured were interesting!

In our new Photo Of The Week section, we also posted a great shot of one of the cheerleaders with a memorable face that became an instant classic!

In between the competitions, we would watch the crowd and sidelines for things that might catch our attention. The little boy pictured below was hanging out with us at the edge of the mats and decided to pick up one of the megaphones that was being used as a barrier. I think he might have a future in this

During the morning set, I hopped up during one of the breaks to make sure everything was alright at the table with Loretta and Jenny and to check out the video Sean captured so far. As I came around the judges table, I found this couple who seemed to support their little cheerleader 150%!

Overall, it was a great day for everyone and we were even invited to do the same for the Cheer For All Winter Fest at Pine Bush High School on February 16th! Let’s see what kind of shots come out of that one!

This past Saturday, we photographed our first ever Cheerleading Competition at the Minisink Valley Ultimate Cheerleading Competition. While we’ve photographed cheerleaders at football games, we were still in the dark about what we’d encounter during the event itself. Let me start off by saying that cheerleaders at football games are a bit more predictable. These competitions happened fast and moved over every possible inch of the mat!

Shots like the one above pretty much became the theme of the day. While each of us tried our best to anticipate the next flip, kick or jump … we found that we were swinging the lenses around in hopes that we’d capture something great. Well, we did get some great shots … but not the ones we had in mind!

The shot above was taken with our Mark III with a 70-200mm lens and a hot-shoe mounted flash at F2.8 at 1/250 with the ISO at 1250. Most of our close-up shots of the girls in action yielded more roller-coaster and screaming-match shots … except for this one … which was taken during the actual performance itself. After becoming an instant classic, we all started comparing our “frozen face” shots as the rest of the day went on … but nothing seemed to top this one!