#54Behind the shot
By Kiell | posted on 22 May 2009 | 15 comments
Back in September last year I was invited to join the team on a trip to France to meet with the Majestic Force guys. Julie was filming, I was photographing, and after a magical day spent in the forest in Sarcelles, we headed in to central Paris to train.
I’d been asked to get some shots of the French guys for the Majestic Force website and publicity. Working candidly is always tricky; I much prefer to have a small group of maybe three or four athletes and no other distractions. In addition, when people work drills and do general training, it’s not necessarily photogenic, and this can be a little frustrating.
Those who are familiar with my work will know of my love for strong clean lines and bright skies, so when I was asked to go and spend ten minutes scouting a location for a dedicated shoot, imagine my pleasure in wandering up to the banks of the Seine and seeing the Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir stretching across the river towards the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand. This footbridge is only a couple of years old and its undulating design presented a decent rail for the guys to vault, and a blue sky and cityscape as a backdrop. A little basic, but given the available time and a lack of familiarity with the neighbourhood, combined with the need to get some good action images, this was pretty good.
Paris can be a tricky place to photograph. As with London, if you look vaguely professional, you need a permit, especially if you’re shooting a landmark. Having a tiny amount of lighting equipment would catch the eye of any passing gendarmes and this meant that we’d have to work fast.
The exact location was determined by the guys stepping up to do the vault; it was mid afternoon and two days of training had left them a little fatigued and as a result, the height of the vault was reduced a little to go a little easier on their quads. I was fine with this – a bigger jump always looks impressive but I’d rather do the slightly smaller version and have more opportunities to catch the shot.
Next up, some light tests. A glorious, azure sky meant tons of light, but I wanted to fill the shadows with my strobe. You might have noticed that on bright days, looking up through your camera towards your subject, you can get great skies but the person ends up really dark. With the flash helping out, I could expose for the blue sky (almost under-exposing to get the depth of colour) and not have to worry about my traceur being under exposed. The shot of my hand (with Chau looking down at me as thought I've gone mad) is a quick way of seeing how much light will fall on the subject - with digital, it's a quick alternative to a light meter.
The last tweaks were clearing out some of the litter. Sometimes this can add to a shot, giving a sense of the grittiness of the city. In this case, I knew that with the light, the mesh and metal of the railing, and the colour of the sky, it would end up being a very commercial, clean shot and it needed to be free of distractions. As it happens, a banana skin went unnoticed but fortunately it was easy to remove in post production. You probably wouldn't notice it, but I'm told I can be something of a perfectionist at times...
Once all of that was sorted, I simply needed some volunteers to do the vault. The guys had all waited patiently for me to get sorted and they were more than keen to get involved. This was where having a large collection of athletes comes in useful: I could snap jump after jump without fear of tiring anyone out too quickly. In all, I took 23 frames of the jump being performed, experimenting with some background movement to give a little variety. I was almost shooting into the sun so was having to be careful of lens flare, and you’ll notice that it has crept into a few of the other images. I don’t mind it occasionally, but it can be a little clichéd and so wanted to avoid it where possible.
The best shot was of Stephane with Tony in the background cat crawling along the rail. This was posted a few weeks later on my own site - kiell.com - and the Parkour Generations site. I prefer not to release a batch of very similar shots as it can dramatically reduce the impact of an individual image that stands alone, and for this reason it didn’t appear in a gallery of different shots as it didn’t fit in with anything else.
I always seem to be blessed with magnificent weather whenever I head to Paris and this was no exception. For a half hour shoot I was very pleased with the resulting shot of Stephane and Tony. And if you want it hanging on your wall, here’s your chance. An A2 poster for the person who posts the best comment in response to the blog. (Sadly, I can only really afford to post to the UK, so many apologies to my international friends!) Posts will be judged by PKG director Dan Edwardes and results will be announced in my next blog contribution next month. Good luck!
About the Author : Kiell15 Comments:
Great post and awesome photos as usual mate. :)
By 
Andy, at
2:50 pm, May 22, 2009
Very cool to get an insight into the work of the master himself..
Hey, as I'm judging this, and that was a pretty damn good comment... see where I'm going with this? ;)
By Dan, at
3:44 pm, May 22, 2009
Did you write the first comment yourself Andy?
By 
, at
4:16 pm, May 22, 2009
Heh, no Spanna I didn't. If you click on "Andy" next to his post you'll see that it takes you to his profile. :)
By Kiell, at
5:01 pm, May 22, 2009
Great to hear some of the technical details behind the shots, as well as seeing the results of your attention to detail - don't give too much away though ;)
Can't say enough about the interaction between the cameraperson and the subject. Some of my favorite shots are ones where the subject's personality shines through. Nice one Andy! ps: you shot for playboy? ;)
By Shi, at
2:29 am, May 23, 2009
Thanks a lot Kiell! As I'm novice in photoshooting, this kind of articles really help, plus we get really cool examples of what you are talking about. Be sure I'll be using some of your tips the next photoshoot sesion.
By the way, in the case I win the poster don't ship it... I'll recieve it directly from you after Morzine...
Hope anyway meet you in July!
haha, great post but, wish you had said you can only afford sending a poster to the UK in the beginning(I got my hopes up that I had a chance to win this poster, but my hopes crumbled at the end), and seeing how I'm from the US, now I don't have to think of a witty comment in an attempt to win the poster! Woot.
Cheers!
By Taylor, at
5:06 am, May 26, 2009
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
GREATPHOTOSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
By cookie, at
9:29 pm, May 26, 2009
An interesting post Kiell - I like the parallels that are inferred between your form of expression and that of the traceur.
It would seem to me that the art of parkour requires its practitioner to train rigorously in order to hard wire their skills sets and yet they must remain creatively responsive to the unique moment in which each movement is executed. Similarly you bring the discipline of the tactician to your planning and preparation but must remain open to the circumstances of the truthful and the ephemeral at the same time.
However there is also a antithetical relationship established at the same time - for while the traceur finds truth in movement, you find it in the stillness out of which the captured moment emerges. A very cool set of images - well done mate!
By Andy Fisher, at
1:46 am, May 27, 2009
Apologies for the typos in the last post - it's late! I figured I'd better identify my own 'banana skins' before Dan ribs me for being an English teacher who has no grasp of basic expression!
By Andy Fisher, at
1:51 am, May 27, 2009
Amazing pictures as always Kiell. However, theres no need for me to win the competition as i already have a photogrpahic memory, i just forget to put the film in sometimes.......so sayin that a poster would be a good help actually :P.
Inspiring,Keep clickin,
By Lewisr, at
10:48 am, May 27, 2009
As a great man once said...
"We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing"
That's what I like about your shots Andy. You capture the enjoyment of your subjects so well.
By , at
11:26 am, May 27, 2009
So interesting to see how you are working and actually trying to create an ideal environment for the perfect shot/shoot. And yes, the results are admirable.
But....
It's a style of working that makes me feel tired, as a fellow photographer, when I'm even only reading about it.
You see, I'm the one who has never worked with the equipment that an average pro would have. I've always done my work without strobes. The flash I have is the one attached to my camera. And a tripod is the biggest piece of equipment that I have ever tolerated around me.
Why, you could ask. Am I an anarchist?
I wouldn't know how to answer to that, I'm afraid. I simply have started shooting and with the gear I had and the circumstances I was in I made the best of it.
Which caused me to develop a style that draws the very extremes out of the present ambience: registering the image that is available, without influencing the environment more than I can with the means that are with me. So if the sky is not clear, then sod it, I know that the contrast between the subject and the sky is even nicer than with 'sunlit blue'. I know, it's a point of view and not a rule, but it has become a way for me to work. And if the conditions are not ideal for what I've got in mind, then I'll switch to what I can get out of what IS there.
This has caused the birth of a totally different style in my photography and when I read your post I thought it was great fun to mirror it to your work. Mine: artistic, sometimes painting-like images. Yours: a clear, functional registration of what parkour is all about, but then again, also art in its very own right.
Now I'm thinking about my way of working... my next book will be full of 'staged photography', in order to tell stories to people. Whoops. So much for being the purist not touching and changing her environment.
Maybe you and I should do a test: be at the same place, both doing our own photography in our own way/style and then see what comes out of it!
About the poster: I would be thrilled to get it, and no, I don't live in the U.K. but will be in London one of these months again and would be able to pick it up from somewhere.
By Generys, at
1:34 pm, June 15, 2009
Awesome shots, thanks Kiell it makes me happy just to look at them... (and I think the comp is over so don't worry that was just a comment of appreciation!) Naomi
By , at
11:57 am, June 23, 2009
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