I was asked recently to produce a series of photographs for a friend Maria Yuen who teaches Tai Chi. I was the first to admit that I had little to no experience of what Tai Chi even looked like, the only time I have come across it before was in the parks and Gardens of Hong Kong where you really can’t miss it!

I spoke to Maria to find out as much as possible about exactly what it is they would be doing, and what is is they wanted me to capture. I have shot plenty photos of Capoeira in my time and so I was quite happy when she said she wanted the shots to contain an element of movement. No matter how well posed a photo is, whether it be Tai Chi, Capoeira or contemporary dance, it will always look posed. And while this makes it much easier to frame and light, something is always lost…

So I went away and did my homework, I watched videos of the movements I expected to be shooting and looked at other photographs of Tai Chi, I read up in some lighting books about the best way to light the action and then I was ready… at least I thought I was…

We arrived at the location we were shooting at, two huge dance studios, one white and one black to choose from. My first mistake was that I had never seen the locations before and I had made assumptions based on what they would be like, how they would reflect light and where I would have the practitioners posed. So I made some alterations to the plans in my head and I got set up. It was a simple set up, a single speedlight (because thats all I have!) shot through a white umbrella to give the light a nice soft feel. We decided to start in the black room. I spoke with Maria and her Father who explained where the movements started… perfect, everything in position and ready to go! My second mistake was not realising quite how much forward, back and side to side motion goes on when you are running through a set of movements. I found myself frantically scrambling around to get into the correct shooting position for where the light was and I managed to fire off a few decent shots using this method… But it was more down to good luck than good judgement.

I started to panic ever so slightly! Everything I had planned for had gone out of the window and I was having to improvise as we went along… never a good place to be. We ran through the sequence a few more times with some adjustments to the position and strength of the speedlight and the shots started to improve. I was looking at the camera after each set of movements and they were looking more like the shots I had envisioned. But I was still not totally happy with the way it was going. The black walls were making it hard to expose correctly for both Maria and her Father, one was wearing white and the other black, I didn’t help myself at all! So we decided to switch to the white room and take a break… Another mistake (they really came thick and fast that day) was that I had only left about 90 mins for the whole shoot, which involved some costume changes, use of weapons, single person shots, double person shots and more! So everything felt quite rushed to me.

I made some more change to the lighting setup, going for a more even spread rather than trying to get dramatic lighting in certain areas only. This technique obviously works really well when lighting portraits of people who are never moving! So I was now happy with the light I was getting and the shots and framing came more naturally, I was starting to relax and enjoy myself now and I think it shows in the photos! As we finished up I had a final scan through the photos and could end the shoot confidently knowing that I had some good examples of the shots I knew she wanted.

I took this as a harsh lesson. Preparation is great, so long as you have all the information you need! Prepping for the shoot/location you want is only really helpful if that is the location you are lucky enough to have!

I’ve attached a few shots below. Big thanks to Maria and her family for inviting me along. If you are interested in finding out more about this wonderful art then contact Maria. She runs Wu Style Tai Chi classes in Handbridge, Chester.

Info: mariasokam@hotmail.com

07900024527

Thanks for reading.

Neil

HDR is not new. It has been around since the mid 1800′s in one form or another and is, in simple layman terms:  The ability to take a series of different exposures of the same scene and combining them in post processing so more of the image is properly exposed.

I find HDR to be like many photography trends, beautiful and captivating when done well, but garish and overcooked when done badly. And it is a fine line, that differs from person to person… There is no right or wrong way to process your HDR, it comes down to personal preference, its just that some persons seem to have a real gift for it! It is a subject i have always been nervous about taking on for fear of getting it wrong, but recently I have taken the plunge after seeing the stunning work of Elia Locardi on his site Blame The Monkey

I’ve been following the HDR trend for many years via flickr and 500px, and I would like to think that before I even started going out shooting i had an idea of what i would want the end result to look like. Not too exagerated but also to have a certain aspect of the dreamlike state which is present in some of my favourite HDR shots…

The essentials for HDR photography are:

1) A decent quality SLR camera. I dont care whether you shoot Nikon or Canon, they each have their own merits, but it must have the ability to bracket 3 or more exposures, one to correctly expose the shadows, one for the highlights and one for the midtones as decided by the camera.

2) A tripod if you’re shooting at night or dusk, the blue hour just after the sun sets but before the moon rises is an amazing time to shoot HDR…

3) The right software to merge your 3 (or more) exposures together. This functionality has been available in Photoshop since CS2 I believe, although the industry standard is Photomatix Pro (and what I use) There are tutorials available on many of the sites listed below.

Here are some of my recent/first HDR attempts, I am happy with the final outcome and I am now always on the lookout for what will make a good HDR photo. Do you agree?

Check out some of the following links for more advice, they have been very helpful to me…

BlameTheMonkey.com

Seeyoubehindthelens.com

Lightstalking.com

Disclaimer: My photos are a starting point in my HDR life. I hope you will join me on the journey and I look forward to your feedback along the way!

Where would artists be without people to give them inspiration? Most of my favourite photographs are portraits and I love to photograph people!

Everyone has a story, everyone has an amazing uniqueness that I do my best to capture. I’m always on the look out for new people and new faces to get into the studio!

Here are some of the my favourite people shots.

[Show as slideshow]

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/capoeiravibe/6778946355/[/flickr]

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[flickr size="small" float="left"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/capoeiravibe/6778947439[/flickr]

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[flickr size="small" float="left"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/capoeiravibe/6778948419/[/flickr]