Paige Hassen: JRN

Central Michigan Senior gymnast Amber Mueller:

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My experience:

I did gymnastics as an elementary school kid, so I was really excited to be able to capture a few photos of a gymnast on the CMU team.

I reached out to the coach to see if I would be able to take photos in their practice gym and luckily she got back to me in time to shoot the day the assignment was due. I was lucky enough that I grew up playing sports with her daughter, so she remembered me and said that was essentially the only reason she was allowing me to take photos.

I had a plan to take photos of one of the girls on the team, but since they were practicing for regionals, the coach said they were unavailable but she would find me someone that would work.

All I had to do was get all the equipment and show up, which was nice.

There was definitely a good amount of trial and error. I feel as though every time I take photos I find out something new or have to use different settings. Also, something usually always goes wrong. This time it was one of the light stands didn’t have a top to it. I made it work with what I had, setting the godox strobe up on random gymnastics equipment.

This wasn’t too big of a problem then, but since I was supposed to shoot another assignment right after, I was a little stressed about it.

Turns out the other subject stood me up. I confirmed last night the time with them and hadn’t heard back after the confirmation. So, this is the only sports portrait I have right now, but will plan on making up for it with a different subject this week.

It’s a little upsetting, but also teaches a good lesson about communication and relying on subjects a little too much.