This shoot was a cooperation between me and one of my fellow Kung Fu practitioners who likes to spend time training in the Wudang mountains in China and get his ass kicked by shaolin monks… He needed photos for his new site and I decided to make a Warriors Series piece out of it! We found this really cool industrial location which does not have much to do with the art of Kung Fu but looks absolutely great as a background. Jules who was running the place at the time was excited to host a martial arts shoot and not the usual fashion shoot. He was quizzing Lawrence on techniques, experiences with the Shaolin monks, philosophy of the art etc. and was very curious about my approach to shooting martial arts. I had this shoot filmed but it still needs to be cut…
Lawrence did a lot of jumps but we also focused on basic techniques. I used my portable studio lights Elinchrom Quadra Ranger for some of the more dynamic shots but the diffused light coming in from the windows was amazing so I settled with that for most. I like that the natural light and the final coloring give the background an almost sort of soft, peaceful look even though we are in a huge industrial space. This one was shot on the 5D MKIII using various lenses but mostly the Canon f1.4 50mm fixed lens. This lens delivers very sharp images and I like the focal length – it´s just this little bit closer than what we humans naturally perceive (which is around 35mm) but without being to zoomed in.
