It’s early on a Saturday morning. The school is mostly deserted. Everyone is bleary eyed as they stretch in silence.

They are here to push themselves. They are here to learn a new routine. They are here to dance.

They are the poms squad.

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was taking on a new photography project.

Well debuting for you today, I give you a more thorough edit of that Saturday morning shoot. I will be returning to several more practices and a performance or two in the course of this project, and when it’s all over, I will hopefully have a good narrative about this team and who these girls are.

I’m really looking forward to getting to know these gals better. They’re such troopers.

As I watched and photographed, they responded enthusiastically to all their captains’ directions. A few times I sat there thinking, “Wait, what?” and without protest, they just moved as asked, trusting their coach and captains to lead them well.

Also, I was quite thrilled that they did such a good job of ignoring me. A girl’s never been so excited to go unnoticed in her life, let me tell ya’! It is not easy to ignore someone who has a big ol’ camera pointed in your direction, but they did it.

So thank you girls for that, and thank you to their coach for being so welcoming!

OK, here we go!