The Iowa Photo: Double exposure

This was Gazette photojournalist Savannah Blake’s first year covering the boys’ state wrestling tournament in Des Moines last month.

She said it was much busier than she’d anticipated, noting the first day she and another photographer covered four mats each and jumped from match to match to photograph the wrestlers from The Gazette’s coverage area.

“On the day of the championships, we had more down time, which meant I could play around with some images,” she said. “I wanted to capture the match itself and the subsequent victory that follows when a wrestler gets a pin or the final whistle ends the match.

“I opted for a double exposure, which is a feature you can find in your camera settings by selecting how many images you want to layer on top of each other.

“With any multiple exposure photo, you have to be careful about layering the images,” she advises. “If you take a photo where movement is in the same spot, you will get a muddied photo. I had to wait several minutes for the winner to be declared to layer the two images on so you could see both photos more clearly.

“Overall, I like how this picture turned out as it is a different way to summarize a match in one photo.”