Master Vernon Low and Chief Instructor John O’Brien visited Perth recently for First Tae Kwon Do Western Australia’s winter grading examination. Below are a few of my favourite photographs from the event.
The girl in the picture showed excellent poise in her kicking technique, and I was able to maintain the focus on her face during execution. This can be challenging when the subject’s head moves during the execution, particularly with a large aperture (f/2 in this case).
I was shooting with my 85 mm prime lens, but this is one photograph where I could have wished to have my 70–200 mm zoom lens instead. I cropped the original frame heavily, but even so, the focus on the kicking woman’s face was accurate, and a reasonable image was the result.
During this event, I was shooting at only 5 fps; my camera was running off the built-in battery without the higher power level delivered from the battery grip. Shooting at 8 fps might have enabled me to capture a better picture than above during the jumping sequence, but this result is still pleasing. It would be possible to crop more heavily to feature the subject, but too much cropping in this case would detract from the context—which is that the kicking woman was well off the ground at this point (compare the height of the black belt member to the right, holding the board for the woman to break).
Achieving black belt rank in First Tae Kwon Do marks the beginning of an entirely new stage in one’s martial art training, so it is a significant milestone. Here we see Master Low, Chief Instructor O’Brien, and Chief Instructor (WA) Dane Meade with the Brentwood senior instructor, assistant instructor, and newly promoted black belt member.
Here we see Master Low with the newly promoted black belt member from Brentwood. Many First Tae Kwon Do members who achieve black belt rank do so when they are (relatively) young. It is certainly more challenging for those in their 30s, 40s, or above, but by no means impossible—as the gentleman on the right has demonstrated. Congratulations to him and to his instructor on this achievement.
The 3:2 ratio of most DSLR images is not always ideal for portraits, as there usually tends to be extraneous space at the top and bottom of the image. (I’ve heard a 5:4 ratio is often more appropriate.) In this case, however, the 3:2 ratio was perfect for capturing this picture of Master Low with one of the most senior instructors in Western Australia (and also one of the tallest instructors), along with the First Tae Kwon Do banner in the background.