Pageant Queen

Who doesn't love a good pageant?

The Ms. Coastal Bend Senior Pageant took place over the weekend, and I was super excited. I went to a rehearsal the day before to maximize my pageant time and get some pictures during the pre-pageant interviews.

Some of those ladies could really move. I was impressed. I intended to make a little audio slideshow, so I gathered some sound while I was there. Probably my favorite moment of the day happened when the former queens were practicing their opening routine. The CD skipped and the ladies all clamored around trying to fix it.

I don't know why, but it was endlessly entertaining to me. If you listen closely, you can hear me bust out laughing among the chaos.





As much as I love my little MiniDisc recorder, I guess I don't know how to use it. That became obvious to me the night of the show. It was paused when I thought it was recording, and it recorded when I thought it was paused.

Apparently I'm a bit of a "rascal" for popping up in different places back stage, at least according to one of the many random (and sometimes awkward) snippets of audio I caught when I thought it was paused.

The resolution I made to change the sound of my voice isn't going so well.

Say what you will about pageants, but I really admired these women for being so daring.

They were beautiful.

They were talented.

And they are much braver then I am. In the end I scrapped the audio slideshow, which really made me sad and frustrated. Some of my key audio got killed by my recorder in the transfer process, so I just put up a simple photo gallery on the newspaper's website.

I did get to hear some of it, though, including when the winner gushed about how great the experience was.

"It's been so wonderful. It makes you feel young again."

Pageant Portraits

Just call me Mr. Beauty Pageant. On second thought, don't.

I was assigned to shoot my third pageant in as many months, and I really wanted to do something different. Part of my motivation was me wanting to do really good work, another part of it was just not wanting to shoot another pageant. The result, a behind the scenes mix of portraits that I really liked.

My plan was to grab girls in various states of getting ready and take a nice portrait of them. Here, a contestant practices singing with a CD player before the talent competition.
My set up was kind of tight. I set my backdrop right at the end of a hallway that T-ed with the main hallway the girls used when they walked from the dressing room to the stage. I wanted to be close enough to grab them on the go, but not right in the middle of a high traffic area. I kind of sprung this idea on the pageant director a few hours before the start, and she wasn't all that keen on it. I convinced her to let me set up, but she was very unsure about having me back there.
Occaisonally I would turn my soft box around 180 degrees and sniper the girls as they walked back and forth in the main hallway to change clothes. I made a mini backdrop and set it up in the hall to keep the photos somewhat uniform looking.
At one point one of the girls turned and looked right at me as she walked by. She was framed perfectly on the small backdrop. I love her position and her face. She nailed it.


Before I came to the pageant with a car full of lighting equipment, I sketched a few things out just to be safe. I'm not always the most creative on the fly, so I wanted to make sure I had a few ideas in my head. It's not uncommon for me do this, but I was surprised how some of my sketches translated almost exactly in the camera. That almost never happens.

A few more examples:
The sketch
The result
The sketch
The result
The sketch
The result
It was a long night, but I thought I came out with some nice images. I was really glad some of the girls were really open to the idea. Some more than others. Overall I had a good time, but I really hope I've shot my last pageant for a while.

Behind The Scenes (Now With Slideshow Goodness)

I'll admit, I felt a little uncomfortable shooting some of these images. I was taking pictures backstage at a Miss University of Arkansas pageant over the weekend, and I think I got some pretty stand-out stuff.

I know it's hard to miss with pretty girls in bathing suits, but beyond that I like the lines and the framing of these photos. The top one is somewhat risque for a family newspaper, but I love the look and feel of the moment as they are getting ready backstage. Even though it is half naked girls, I still think there is respect for the subject.

For the most part I think I felt more awkward being backstage then the girls did. Probably because they knew I was out numbered.


This girl was my absolute favorite. She was totally at ease around me, and she gave me so many good images backstage. She went on to win the competition.

I took tons of images and even collected a little audio. I've really wanted to get back to making audio slide shows, so I thought this would be as good as anything to pick it back up. I was shooting this for one of our weekly Sunday sections, so I have a little time before they run to put together a little slide show. I'll throw a link for it on my blog once it is done.

01/26 UPDATE: It won't be promoed in our paper until the package runs Sunday, but the slideshow link is now live and online, for anyone who cares. Click here to see it.