Encaged fierceness
A couple of weeks back I got the opportunity to take photos of Dutch Kendōka Ivo van Roij during a national competition in Utrecht, here in the Netherlands. I took this shot on the side lines when he had just suited up and was preparing for the next fight. It was my first time observing Kendo, and must admit that from the side lines this Japanese martial art looks and sounds like quite an intensive sport. The swords that are used are commonly made of wood, but can still cause ugly injuries. Like I do most of the time, I took this shot in color and converted it into grayscale in Lightroom. Spot metering resulted in these dark patches, which I feel fit the image and the fighter’s cold expression.
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June 16th, 2009 at 09:06
Fokke, great job in these theme! Love the symmetry in this shot, specially the mask he is wearing contribute to that.
June 16th, 2009 at 14:56
I would only suggest a tighter crop on the bottom, so the picture ends in black.
June 18th, 2009 at 06:07
He looks like he could kick some butt. I enjoyed reading the description, this really helps lend a good story to the image. Without it, the photo wouldn’t work as well. I tend to disagree about the tighter crop, I like it the way it is. This way we can see there is a outfit underneath and the black is only for the head. The looser crop gives us a little more context to this special gear. Nice symmetry.
June 29th, 2009 at 05:01
Nice graphic image and tones! Perfect title too!