Eye-popping Images of Gymnasts in Motion

Photo by: Ezra Shaw
Kennedy Baker
Baker practices beam before the finals on July 1, 2012.

by Sarah B. Weir, Shine Staff Writer
Traditional photographs don't do justice to the dynamism of gymnastics. Athletes are in constant motion, completing intricate tricks that flow one into the other. At the recent Olympic gymnastic trials held in San Jose, California, photographers Julie Jacobsen of the Associated Press and Ezra Shaw of Getty Images used multiple exposure photography to capture the movement of the young competitors' stunning routines.

Multiple exposure photography superimposes two or more exposures to create a composite image that reveals the movement of a subject through time and space. These images were taken at about a quarter of a second per frame.