Another busy weekend of shooting wrapped up with the Coastal Edge Miss ECSC Swimsuit Pageant finals. Its been a while since I photographed a swimsuit pageant and wasn't sure how close I would be able to get to the stage so I decided to break out the D500 and the 200-400 f4.

This proved to be a pretty good choice because when I showed up I found the stage and runway was set up on the beach and was about 4 feet off the ground. I also found that half the runway was inaccessible due to the VIP/ Judges area. Now I had gotten there early enough that I could have gotten a spot right up front next to the runway but with the stage being so high I would have ended shooting up at the contestants ending up with shots that weren't too flattering.

I opted to shoot from the back of the VIP area shooting over the tops of their heads. What backing up did for me was gave a much more flattering vantage point (not looking up at the contestants) plus I didn't have to worry about people running into me or fighting me to get to the front. Using the 200-400 gave me plenty of room to get full length shots and tighter 3/4 length shots.

While I didn't have a problem with shooting position I did have problems with the sun. Because this was outdoors at 4pm the sun was still high and cast huge shadows on the contestants when they turned and tended to blowout the skin tones.

Overall I was happy with the photos and it was pretty fun to shoot. Here are some of the photos I got.