I thought I would use this scene to give some photography tips. This is a gymnastic team at Circus Flora in St. Louis. Circus Flora is a one ring circus with interesting sets, costumes and acts. This makes it a good venue to photograph with continuing subjects and a lot of challenges. The good: one ring circuses are small venues where every set is up close and personal; since it is a performance venue there is good lighting with spotlights and interesting subjects. The bad: lots of action; unexpected movement; not enough light for rapid movement; need for close-up and wide angle shots; no flash allowed; no focus assist lights allowed.
First, I used Nikon Z6 camera with a Nikkor Z 24-120mm f4 lens. I set the ISO to 2200 to handle lighting issues, kept the exposure above 1/250 sec and the lens at f4.0 or a little higher.
In some cases I used continuous shooting to capture rapid movement, kept the ISO high and watched the playback display. As always, this is a venue I visit every few years and have a feel for how everything is going to play out. This is probably one of my best tips. If you have a subject you like, go back several times to re-evaluate your composition.
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