Shooting Kuk Sool Won

(a nicely composed portrait)

As regular blog readers know, I love shooting sports photography. I have shot a lot of baseball, soccer, swimming and track photographs, as well as a few volleyball and basketball games. So, when my best friend's son was being promoted to a second degree black belt, she asked if I would photograph the event. Gulp. I wanted to do a really good job for her, but I knew nothing about what to expect, and she said the lighting in the studio was bad. 
I just did my best to capture Ian as he went through a variety of demonstrations. First up were a variety of flips, falls and leaps:

(capturing athleticism and action)

Ian jumped flew over six students! Unfortunately, because of where I was sitting, I couldn't get a good angle on the shot. The best I could do on the spur of the moment was to take the last shot in the mirror. After tumbling, Ian performed with a bamboo pole.

(capturing beauty and rhythm)

I tried to get a variety of different shots, in order to give a sense of the beauty of the performance. Finally, Ian displayed a knife fight/disarming series he choreographed.

(capturing the bad-ass aspect of KSW)

Rebecca was thrilled with the photographs. She especially liked the knife fight because she thinks Ian looks "bad-ass." I agree, and I'd like to have him by my side if I ever have to travel down a dark alley!
Overall, I was happy with the shoot. I decided to shoot the whole thing with my fixed 50mm lens because it lets in a lot of light and autofocuses on my camera body. Because of the nature of the promotion, I couldn't really move around much, so I couldn't really do much to zoom in or zoom out, but I still think the quality of the photos is better then if I would have used either of my zoom lenses because they just aren't fast enough in low light situations. I was able to crop to get the close ups that I wanted, but I did miss some of the wider angle shots that I would have liked to capture. I also used my monopod to get better clarity (this was a GREAT decision) and shot the whole thing on "running man" mode since I knew I wouldn't have time to adjust levels. All in all, it was a good experience. An illuminating experience. I came away from it happy that I have learned enough shooting sports photography over the last few years that I could do this for my friend. I was able to draw on my other experiences to make choices that worked. I realized that I am growing and learning and honing my craft. And that felt really good. Have you noticed how you have grown as a photographer or artist over time?