30 January 2010: Action photos taken during the Alabama Crimson Tide and Minnesota Gophers at Penn State Nittany Lions women’s gymanstics meet  held at the Rec Hall in University Park, Pennsylvania.   No. 1 Alabama took first with a 196.600, the 19th ranked Nittany Lions placed second with a season-high 196.025 and No. 23 Minnesota took third with a 192.850.

Photos by Alex Cena / Southcreek Global

Gymnastics is very difficult to photograph in many venues because you cannot use strobes to both freeze the action and get clear photos as well as the added benefit of darkening the background to make it look less cluttered.  These were all shot at ISO 6400 with a Canon Mark IV set to a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second with an aperture of f/4.  Though some were taken with a Canon Mark III at ISO 3200 1/800th of a second f/3.2  Also, it was difficult to get a clean background because there were three events going on simultaneously and there was something busy at every angle.  It would’ve been perfect if the hall was not so evenly lit.  If the floor was lit evenly and the seats lit less (i.e. a stop preferably two), then I could’ve photographed the gymnasts and have the background go dark to black.  The entire image gallery can be viewed by going to Southcreek Global.