Cheer!

"Emilie Balius, 6, of the 10 and under Parkville Patriots cheerleading squad, performs a routine at spirit building show at Parkville High School, Sunday afternoon."

It's not every day we photographers take advice from the "word side" folk. But the reporter on my assignment was spot on.

When I arrived to this cheerleader spirit building performance, he told me to do my thing, shoot what I felt would tell the story, but to definitely stay and shoot the actual dancing, cheering portion. He said that's where I'd make the best images.

Well, since I wasn't telling him how to write his lede, I figured I'd shoot the girls warming up and goofing around since I had 30 minutes to burn anyways.

Almost immediately, the girls acted like I wasn't standing two feet from them. I found that really odd considering these little 10-year-olds and 14-year-old girls seemed like they would be grinning and posing for every single pictured I'd take.

I worked the pre-spirit building show hard. Trying to capture the happiness that was this young squad. They were pumped because they were about to embark on a national championship competition in coming weeks.

But to my dismay, I didn't get anything really worth writing home about. So I opted to actually stick around to the four teams performances.

Having never shot cheerleaders, let alone never even knowing one personally, I had no idea how energetic they were. When someone says they have a painted on smile, these girls had it.

Originally I thought the older girls would be the more photogenic, however, when the litter girls got up, I couldn't stop laughing. They were simply endearing. Trying their hardest and really putting on a show.

The reporter was right. The best images came from their performance.