The Kendo Studio Shoot

I confess that I’m pretty much in love with all things Japanese. My garden is designed with a loose Japanese feel and I keep koi and bonsai. So it was inevitable that eventually I’d want to create a body of photographic work centred around an oriental aesthetic.

This Kendo shoot is the start of a project that I feel will last for many months as I try to create images that communicate how I feel about the look and feel of the orient. To me it’s mysterious and uber stylish and if there’s one sport that encapsulates that, it’s Kendo. Just to look at these guys sends a shiver up your spine and trust me, when you see them in full fight mode it really is something else. This is ritualised, highly controlled violence - but of course a Kendo aficionado would never say that!

Over the next few weeks you’ll be able to make your own mind up because we’ll release the video of our shoot with the Gaku Shi Juku Kendo Kai club in Leicestershire. But in the meantime here’s a few worked up images to give you an idea… it was an epic shoot!

Ice Hockey Shoot - Workups & Video

Here’s the video from our recent Ice Hockey shoot with the Nottingham Lions… plus a few of the Workups.

FRPS - Journey's End

I was delighted to be awarded my Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society yesterday. The Fellowship distinction requires a body of work of 21 images and a written Statement of Intent defining the purpose of the work, identifying its aims and objectives. It is the highest award the RPS confer.

I confess to being a competitive person & I need targets to drive me. When I started my photographic journey in 2016 it suited my personality to use the awards structure to measure my progress and with the FRPS I’ve now completed all the awards I targeted. It’s taken 6 years and has had many highs and lows - but I count myself as truly blessed to have discovered photography.

If you’re interested you can read my Statement of Intent below & watch a slideshow of the images I used.

Statement of Intent;                    

My objective is to present a submission demonstrating the incredible diversity of life that relies on our oceans for its existence. 

From the largest predator to the smallest scavenger, they all contribute to a complex ecosystem. Harmonious, symbiotic relationships are plentiful, but just as common is the aggression and trepidation that characterises the lives of the hunters and their prey.

I’m privileged to observe some of these scenes first-hand; relaxed feeding, boisterous play-fighting, curious juveniles and stealthy hunters. I find it challenging, exciting and often tragic - but I’m always moved, either by their beauty or their behaviour.

Using a pictorial style, my aim is to convey the emotions I feel as I take the shot, recording one moment of their largely unseen lives.

First Ice Hockey Shoot Goes Well

We did our first shoot with the Nottingham Lions Ice Hockey Club this week. It was a complicated shoot to pull together, not least because we were shooting on the ice which creates obvious slip hazards, but it also made the shoot quite late - it was 9.15pm when the ice became free.

Our contact for the Lions is Matt Bradbury - he is our “gatekeeper” for this project. I call these contacts gatekeepers because they can quite literally unlock the door to the access required. In this case Matt has been fantastic - from arranging on-site parking through to liaising with the venue, nothing was too much trouble. And of course he arranged our 6 players, including a goalie.

Inspired by Pinterest boards we’d pulled together we planned 6 shooting scenarios;

1.      Shoot puck skidding across ice from various angles. Thrown in by hand, these shots will be composited into the action shots later, eliminating the danger of flying pucks from the action shots

2.      Single skater powering into shot, ice spraying up. Simulating hitting puck or just fast turns etc. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/single-player-action/

3.      Double skaters powering into shot, ice spraying up. Simulating hitting puck or just contact etc. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/dual-players-action/

4.      Bring in goal & Goalie

5.      Shoot from behind net, single & then double skaters powering in, simulating goal mouth action.. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/net-minder-action/

6.      Erect black backdrop behind net

7.      Shoot Goalie portraits. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/net-minder-portrait/

8.      Remove goal

9.      Shoot single player portraits. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/single-player-portrait/

Everything went really well & we were back in the car & on the way home by midnight. A late night shift but well worth it! A massive thank you to Marlies & Alex, without them I just couldn’t pull off shoots this complex.

This is just the first stage of an ongoing project and we have lots of other plans - you could be hearing about this one for quite a while :-)

I look like a dwarf telling a story to a bunch of giants!

I used every light I had - flash & constant LED

Creating Engaging Lectures

I delivered my part of the Creating Engaging Lectures session for the first time yesterday to 44 delegates. It was commissioned by my federation (N&EMPF) with the aim of encouraging more members to create and deliver lectures.

I’m really passionate about lecturing (having done it most of my adult life) so it was great to pass on a few of the hints & tips I’ve learnt over the years.

We covered my complete workflow from concept, planning and creating building blocks through to assembling in PowerPoint. Every delegate received a USB stick which contains lots of bonus material;

• a PDF copy of the lecture

• an editable version of the lecture (that can be used as a template for a quick start to creating their own PowerPoint lecture)

• a video guide to using PowerPoint

• a video guide to creating slideshows in Lightroom

• a video guide to creating Photoshop workup videos

• a video guide to shooting and editing your own videos

A short video showing examples of the content can be seen here

It was great fun to deliver & I genuinely hope it will encourage a few people to have a go :-)

Underwater Special for Bromsgrove - what a blast!

Jan Harris is the Programme Secretary at Bromsgrove PS and also a scuba diver - so she has a particular interest in underwater photography. When I delivered a Zoom lecture on my sports photography for them during lockdown Jan noticed I was an underwater photographer and asked me if I’d be interested in doing a special lecture for them for which they’d sell tickets. Needless to say I didn’t hesitate to accept - I love talking about my underwater adventures!

The lecture took place last week and was attended by around 50 people. I combined the best bits of my three current underwater lectures into two one-hour sessions - you can watch a taster video here.

The audience were fantastic and judging by the feedback enjoyed it. You can read all the feedback here but here’s a few snippets;

• A truly remarkable and enjoyable presentation by David. Superb photography and video which provided a real insight into the lengths that he and Libby go to, to produce such high quality work.

• David’s presentation was spectacular in every way.  It was great to see video of how he achieved some of his images.  You almost felt you were experiencing his trips with him.

• What a superb evening, David's photographs and video footage were stunning. His commentary took us through his incredible journeys and was captivating. 

• I thoroughly enjoyed last nights event - it was fascinating to see the world that exist in our oceans. The images were dramatic, well composed and pin sharp with wonderful lighting that brought out the colours beautifully. Telling us how he got the images was honest and candid of him. Some photographers prefer to keep the so 'called tricks of the trade' to themselves. Thank you for sharing David.

Thank you for the invite Jan - I enjoyed every minute!