He was repeating it over and over again and I felt that the power was amazing and wondered how I could try and capture it. Luke was happy to oblige and I took a few rapid-fire sequences of his run-up and the kick. Later Luke joined them up into an animation (1.6mb).
For the shot below I pre-focused the camera and held it close to the bag and after a few times got the courage to hold the camera closer and closer until it was only a couple of inches away from the bag. I could see that Luke’s accuracy meant that my camera wasn’t in much danger but if he hit it we’d be talking about a write-off and no way was I going to have my head behind it. So I kind-of held it out at arms length and guessed the angle etc until I got it framed right after a few shots.
I liked this image the most because it shows the immense power being exerted and viewing it you feel like you could be on the end of the kick itself. His face sharp but body movement blurred conveys the motion. The wide angle lens emphasises the size of his leg and lower body as they’re closer to the camera and slightly exaggerated as a result. You can’t really see it in the black and white version but his left arm was in a bright blue plaster cast at the time.
Specs: 1/125s 17mm f/5.0 ISO:1250
Here's what he was doing...
You can see it was a massive bag – it needed to be!
Luke went on to win the World Championship in the Men’s Individual Power. Here are some shots of the winning round and the team’s response…..
