I was recently booked to attend a local boxing gym to shoot an up and coming star.
Manyung's story is amazing, and thats a tale I'll delve into in more detail at a later time.
Suffice to say, he fled the civil conflict in the Sudan as a child and walked to Kenya. He found his way to the shores of Australia and has found his calling in the ring, and this young star is about to start his professional career.
His manager booked me to come and take some promotional photos. But I was so impressed with his talent and story, I've decided to take this project further as I want to share his story with the world.
For this shoot, I packed a case of gear. I originally had Manyung stand in the centre of the ring, surrounded by four strobes. One key-light to his left, two side strip lights and a bare strobe behind him.
The images were good. Sure. But They didn't convert what I was after.
They were well framed, dramatic and powerful, the vibrant green of his robe and trunks were really punchy ... but the images were missing something.
I had to go simpler.
I switched my camera to monochrome and pulled all of the lights, except for the key light, out of the ring. The key light was a strobe shooting though a 1000mm octa-box on a boom. The only adjustment I made was to pull that key light as close as I could to Manyung.
A simple one light portrait.
The next time I fired my shutter, I captured the image I decided to share.
This image does not give the drama and vibrance of the images that came before it. It does however show the man. The drama has been replaced by power, determination and focus.
This image also serves as a reminder that often, a s photographer, we work so hard to create a technically perfect image, that it's easy to lose sight of what it is we're trying to capture. This reminds me that there is beauty and honesty in simplicity and that perhaps I should challenge myself to look the simple , honesty os a subject, rather than it's technical potential.
This image speaks far more to me, and is the first in a series I look forward to sharing with the steemit community.
Thoughts, feedback and impressions are of course always welcome.
Peace.