#fintrophy16

[3flip3loop]

And so it ends. 2017 was a lot! 💛 Massive thank you to everyone who supported me, talked to me and whom I had a chance to meet. You made it special. 😊 Now on to 2018! Happy New Year! See you at Worlds! ✌

Note: all photos are my original work. Reposting is stealing and totally not cool. 🙁

[3flip3loop]

I hope you've enjoyed the photos. As always, please reblog on Tumblr (you can take down the photography rant part), retweet (part one, part two) on Twitter, do NOT crop or remove watermarks and give proper credits when sharing anywhere else. Thank you!

The rest of this post is a photography rant and though related to some of the photos above, if you're not particularly interested in how I take my photos and what I think about doing that, it might not be of the greatest interest. Thank you for your understanding. :)

Photography talk on filling the frame and telling the story

Photographing figure skating has given me some of the best memories that I have. However, I have always been told things like "fill the frame", "don't leave empty space here or there" and more than once I have found myself in situations where fulfilling those requirements was simply impossible due to the limitations that my distance from the ice and my lenses set on me.

Back at the 2015 Grand Prix Final I was photographing with a prime lens and anyone who has some photography knowledge should know, it does not zoom in. I was at a fixed focal length of 157mm equivalent and these shots had to be composed to somehow work without filling the frame (see my #GPFBarcelona tag for those photos). Getting those photos focused was another matter, as working with manual focus is no easy task but more on that sometime later.

When I went to Finlandia Trophy in 2016, I had a 70-200mm (105-300mm equiv.) zoom with me - a luxury I didn't have in any international events I photographed until then. It allowed me to fill the frame on numerous occasions without even reaching 200mm and it felt like I could finally get a step closer to what I really want to produce (though it remains in the works as one is hardly ever satisfied with their work).

But having photographed with a much more limiting equipment, I realised that filling the frame is not all that matters. As a photographer you do often strive to tell a story and that can't only be done by isolating your subjects, hence there was this occasion during the ladies short program where I zoomed out and captured Mao Asada in the background of those few people sitting on the other side of the arena. It's not according to the rules I've been hearing when I started photographing, yet that is the view I had that day and better than all other photos I had taken that day, it tells a story of what turned out to be the last short program I was going to see from Mao live.

Rules others have made might tell you one thing but whatever your gear, try to tell a story.

I'm still learning that…

[3flip3loop]

When I started photographing skating, even in my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine I would get to see Mao Asada twice but I did at 2015 Grand Prix Final and at 2016 Finlandia Trophy. 

Despite everything, I’m incredibly grateful because it was incredibly beautiful. 真央ちゃんありがとう

[3flip3loop]

Mao Asada warming-up on ice before her short program at Finlandia Trophy earlier this year.

All photographs are available in higher resolution and without watermarks, just drop me a note. Please do not remove the watermarks yourselves.

[3flip3loop]

I don't know about you but I certainly do not feel ready for tomorrow's ladies short program at Japanese Nationals. 

But because it's Nationals, here are some photos of Mao doing her layback in short program at Finalandia Trophy.

All photographs are available in higher resolution and without watermarks, just drop me a note. Please do not remove the watermarks yourselves.

[3flip3loop]

A little of what I remember from Tatiana Tarasova's commentary of Mao's free skate tonight.

Apparently, she was pretty much okay in the morning (practice reports, anyone? Also see the PS) but during the 6-minute warm-up she didn't warm up anything.

Tarasova mentioned that Mao has acclimatization problems and even on 4th of 5th day in a new place, she would not be fully there yet. Neither her being okay in the morning but unable to do anything in the evening nor the acclimatization issues are addressed. According to Tarasova they made the same acclimatization mistakes in Sochi.

Tatiana Tarasova also expressed her worry that Mao is unable to perform to her potential.

As far as I remember, nothing was mentioned about her knee.

P.S.: At Finlandia Trophy she did seem a little better in the morning but at least she warmed up some things during the 6-minute warm-up.

[3flip3loop]

Tatiana Tarasova, who's commentating at Trophee de France this weekend, said she had met Mao on Thursday.

Those are my notes based on some quick translations I've got of Tarasova commentating Mao's SP.

If I understood it correctly, Tarasova didn't ask Mao about the off-ice training but thinks Mao really needs it. According to Tarasova, Mao is not yet physically prepared to jump the triple Axel and she is not skating fast but should skate into herself as the season progresses.

There was a comment from Tarasova, which sounded like Mao could have gained some weight but has not yet adjusted to it.

Tarasova also said [I hope I'm getting things correctly here, - Gabu] she is really worried about Mao.  Apparently, there have been some small changes made to Mao's entrances into jumps and positioning of jumps on the ice but Mao doesn't take those changes easily. I would guess Mao's probably not someone who adjusts to changes quickly.

So far this season Mao looks like she's skating for her own pleasure and the marks are showing it. She's not really competing yet. Tatiana Tarasova has expressed her hope, though, that Mao gets back into shape. She's exquisite after all.

Tarasova also mentioned that at the time Mao's mother was still alive and Tarasova was coaching Mao, she received a letter like no other from Mao's mother. She hopes to write a book one day and include it. It must have been very touching.

[3flip3loop]

There's something incredibly enjoyable about Kaetlyn Osmond's skating and the way she never stops smiling. Hopefully she has a very good reason to smile after Skate Canada. Good luck, Kaetlyn!

All photographs are available in higher resolution and without watermarks, just drop me a note somewhere. Please do not remove the watermarks yourselves.