jumping gymnasts!

i got kicked out of the dance educators of america hoedown when i went downtown this weekend to see what was going on at the convention center. some woman claimed that taking photos of the competition would disqualify the contestants. a quick check of the rules at the DCA's website proved otherwise, however, leaving me to wonder whether this bitch was lying or just stupid. the rules prohibit flash photography, which i wasn't about to do in any kind of artistic competition. even if it is kind of tacky and pretentious. i had fun at the last dance competition i saw at the convention center. so i was kind of psyched about this one -- even though i wasn't even there for that!

the real point of my visit was the national association of intercollegiate gymnastics competition, what was a bunch of college kids in a big room outfitted like the gym at my high school -- with all the instruments of torture that the coaches made us work with during those long winter months in PE when the weather was too shitty to go outside at bat a tennis ball against a brick wall...

having never shot any kind of indoor athletic competition, i was expecting bad lighting and limited access to put the screws to making any kind of halfway credible photos, but it turned out not to be that bad. the new 105mm f/2 lens i got the other week helped a lot to get those shutter speeds up and freeze motion. but you be the judge: