Thursday 17 September 2009

Auckland North Squad Training Portraits

I can't go to a Taekwon-Do event without taking a few casual portraits. I really like to try and capture people's personality in these images and I think the challenge of trying to get that perfect portrait image keeps me going. On Sunday I think I captured my all time favourite portrait. It is of Sam Couling who's always very photogenic but more often than not pulls a face when I point my lens in her direction :-)

For the image below, she can't have noticed me

Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

the image is straight out of the camera apart from having been cropped in Picasa to cut out someone walking into the picture from the left.


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

Jeremy had grabbed one of my cameras to take some photos of me... something all photographers hate as much as you do! I snapped this image of him shooting me.


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

Another nice image of Sam Couling. I think her hand in the image really adds to it.


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

Alex Couling. The image isn't sharp because I think she was doing a sparring drill when I took this one so she's moving quite a bit. It gives it a very dreamy feel.


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

Chris Broughton responding to some cheek towards the end of the training.


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

Guest instructor Mohamed Azzaoui had an amazing smile. I took lots of photos of him but he moved quite a lot and was hard to get in focus. He's moved slightly during this exposure giving it a tiny bit of movement blurring in the centre of his face which I quite like.


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

Jessica Lewis is busy taking photos and looks up to see me taking a photo of her - I love her response!


Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.5, ISO: 320

The four hour training session is over and Mark Hanna, like many others, is stuffed and soaked in sweat. He stood still for me for a minute to take some photos. He looks like he's ready for the upcoming sleep on the way home in the car!