Hackney, London
Agreeing to work with a professional athlete for a documentary project gave me so much access to areas of the boxing world you don’t normally see.
Following the welterweight boxer Yassine “The Showman” El Maachi all over East London showed me all the hard work, training, interviews and camaraderie that goes in to making a real sportsman and getting him at the top of his game.
Documentary style shooting in low-light and on handheld Canon DSLRs (Canon 1ds mk3 and Canon 5d mk2), both 21 megapixels. Occasionally using the compact Canon Speedlite 430 EX II on camera flash when possible or permitted.
Sometimes you’re sitting around for ages waiting for things to get going, and other times everything happens all at once and you just hope you had all your camera settings worked out in time. See the Camera Settings and Equipment – Photography Masterclass tutorial on my youtube channel for tips.
For some more documentary style work see the Surfers Morocco shoot in creative portfolio.
Table Tennis Tournament - Stepney Green
I played a lot of table tennis as kid and when I was in Camden I joined a club and the local league. We would also be training at Highbury Table Tennis Club on Thursday nights.
I took along the longer Canon 70-200mm f2.8L ISII USM lens to a tournament in Stepney Green (Stepney, East London) that I was in and took these shots. I just tucked myself out the way in a corner. Some real characters that are really in the zone. I’d love to put some these players on billboards around the city.
Check out the Marco Yu table tennis shoot with long exposure action blur and also the Morocco Surfers images in the Light portfolio section.