Article P1: How to take good competition photos

Competitive dancers are difficult to get on film.  Of course, you can snap photos during rehearsals and at warm-ups, but it’s always difficult to capture good photographs during competition.  Often, the competition management will prohibit motion pictures.  Sometimes, the will even prohibit flash photography.  Getting a good picture in a dark, crowded auditorium can be a real challenge when you can’t use flash.

 Over the last few years, the other parents and I have worked on improving our competition photo skills.  Some of us shoot digital; others use anything from well-aged manual SLRs to the latest fully automatic point-and-shoots.  We’ve come up with some general rules that we think help to make better photos.  I'll list most of our ideas, without delving too deeply into technical photography.

Note: All the photos here are mine.  Please don't use without permission!