At the end of every season, our staff is assigned to photograph the best athletes in each of the high school sports. I was asked to photograph the Glastonbury Gymnastics team and the All Courant Gymnast of the Year Amanda Scanlon. Making a group portrait of the whole team can be a challenge, especially with 15 members. I was fortunate to have three balance beams setup near one another to provide a background big enough to comfortably handle all of the the subjects. I use three lights, two White Lightning strobes with umbrellas to the sides and a small Nikon SB 800 in front and slightly off center. The group photo ran on the cover of our Winter Sports All Courant special section.

I also needed to take a portrait of Amanda Scanlon, our All Courant Gymnast of the Year. I noticed a pit full of foam squares where gymnasts practice landings and dismounts from a balance beam. I setup one light to the left of the pit and positioned Amanda on the right side of the pit. I jumped up onto the balance beam, about 4 feet up, to get the overhead view I was looking for and clean up the background using the red padded sides to contrast the blue foam squares. Then I asked Amanda to just fall backwards as I took the photo. It took about 10 attempts to get her in the right angle, lighting and placement of photo.

Once I got the photo I was looking for, it was my turn to leap into the pit! So I gave my camera to our reporter Zac Boyer, stood up, placed me feet squarely on the 4" wide beam and asked for a little guidance from the girls but before they could speak I leapt backward into the pit as they gasped at my actions. That was fun!

Pro TIp: When lighting a large area for a group portrait, be sure to have strong enough strobes to give you a decent aperture so your depth of field will keep all of your subjects in focus. When working on an environmental portrait with one subject look for an element that can add a little color, contrast or compliment the person. Camera used - Nikon D300s, 17-35mm lens. Two White Lightning strobes and one Nikon SB 800 strobe.