blog.brianpoulsen.net » Photojournalism

Taekwondo WC - day two

Brian — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:06:25 +0000

Yesterday I returned to Ballerup Super Arena where the taekwondo World Championships were held to shoot another local fighter. I returned with a days worth of experience shooting Taekwondo. I was hoping errors made on day one would be eliminated. All throughout the first day I tried as much as possible to get the fighters from top to toe, also because I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t want to miss out on anything.

And a quick side note. Craig wrote a comment on the previous post asking if I found it easier or harder to shoot Taekwondo than hockey. I think my question is it’s easier. You don’t have to cover as much ground in Taekwondo as you do hockey. But you gotta be just as quick and anticipate the action just like in hockey.

Philip Rayes - the local guy fought his first fight on mat #5, his second fight on mat #4 and his third on mat #3 which was lit way better than the four corner mats. This wide shot of the arena shows just how big a difference the light was.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 17-40mm f/4 @ f/9, 1/30sec ISO 800. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

If you look at the mat in the center the blue is washed out a lot more than the other four. Too bad the standard wasn’t like that all around.

Anyway, one thing I noticed is just how much the damn referee or whatever he’s called gets in the way. It’s not like boxing where he moves around. He’s facing the timekeepers table as much as possible so the referee gets in your shots a lot and ruins potentially great shots like this one:

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/400sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Even though I had brought my 300mm the first day I never used it. I thought I would be getting too close to the athletes cropping out action. All kicks are to the stomach area or head so from the firhters’ waist and down, not much is happening. However showing the mat does give you an idea of just how high these guys can actually kick!

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/400sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

As mentioned Philip Reyes fought his third match/fight on mat #3. It’s elevated a bit from the ground and as mentioned lit a lot better. too bad that was his last fight as he was knocked out of the competition in overtime/sudden death. He was at that point the danish fighter who had reached the third round. I used the 300mm for two of the three rounds + sudden death. Anyway here’s some more shots from the competition yesterday.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/800sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/320sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/800sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/640sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/800sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Philip Reyes was devastated after losing in the third round.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS @ f/2.8, 1/800sec ISO 1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Taekwondo World Championships

Brian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:12:42 +0000

The 2009 Taekwondo World Championships are held in Denmark this year. With four fighters from Roedovre, I set my course to cover day one of the event. Two of the four fighters were scheduled for today. Arriving at the venue I had to wait 45 minutes to get my credentials which was printed and was just waiting to be handed over. But the organizers figured it was more important to get the athletes their ID’s first, even though they weren’t scheduled to fight that day.

Anyway I headed to the pressroom and got the schedule system figured out. Fights or matches or whatever they are called are no time set. They start at 9am and then just go from there. I did cover the first local guy but was called out to other assignments and missed the other guy and their second round fights which they lost and are now out of the World Championships. Another fighter is going at it tomorrow, so I’ll be heading down there again.

Here it’s Anders Klausen during his first fight which he won in convincing style, with three kicks to the head of the opponent winning 9-2.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 70-200mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/320sec ISO 1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Back to work…

Brian — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:59:04 +0000

I visited Jens Dresling today for a cup of mocca and a chat. He punked me for not updating my blog so I figured I better get going here again.

After a summer that hasn’t really been all that exciting, the tempo is starting to pick up and so are the events. To my satisfaction the various sport seasons are starting again so you can find me around the sports facilities these days.

Oh talking sports, next month the Taekwondo World Championships are held here in Denmark and with four local “fighters” I’ve sent in my request for credentials. I’m really looking forward to it. Not only is it a sport I’ve never shot before, but it’ll be the absolute elite from all across the world that’ll be here! so look out for that come third week of October.

Here’s a fresh photo from an assignment yesterday. It’s an annual thing where parents meet with their kids and walk around a park.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 70-200mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/3200sec ISO 100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Mighty Bulls secure bronze

Brian — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:18:23 +0000

So I kinda left you hanging after Rodovre Mighty Bulls advanced to the semi-finals. To make it short, they lost four games to two, after taking game one then losing three straight, winning one and losing game six.

In a home and home series against Odense Bulldogs - the losers from the other semi-final, the Mighty Bulls clinched their first medal since the 2000/2001 season.

I shot 32 games this season and submitted 621 photos to the paper I cover the hockey for. That’s 19.4 photos submitted per game. The average i heavily lifted throughout the playoffs where I averaged about 40 photos (I created slideshows for every playoffs game which is why the number is a lot higher).

Anyway here’s 40 of the best photos I took throughout the season.

Mighty Bulls advances

Brian — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:10:04 +0000

What a dejavu and what a game. The Mighty Bulls advanced past the quarter finals for the first time since the 2001 season. And in dramatic fashion. Trailing 0-1 after the first period and getting the equalizer with less than two minutes left of the second period, it was all to be decided in the 3rd period. A quick goal in the beginning in the third one more with about 8 minutes to go, the Mighty Bulls eventually pulled away winning 5-1 (with two empty net goals)… Hockey’s not over for me yet… Thankfully!

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/400sec ISO 1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Girls night out

Brian — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:07:31 +0000

The local movie theater/concert hall/culture house Viften arranged a girls night out arrangement where they showed Sex and the City the Movie. Before the movie the girls was served Cosmopolitan drinks which would be my approach.

Walking in to the concourse area I saw a table lined up with more than 100 glasses. The bar staff was loading Cosmopolitans into the glasses. I was hoping they would fill all glasses before letting people grab the drinks. The colorful glasses would make a great photo.. Unfortunately things didn’t quite go my way.

When the first batch of glasses was filled they asked for the women to grab a drink.. To give you an idea of the table I shot this really quick..

All the empty glasses sucked and didn’t really look good at all.

So I bent down closer to the table so the glasses that was filled close to me covered the empty glasses in the middle of the bunch.

It didn’t really do what I wanted. A smaller table behind the big one was also loaded with drinks. It would also give a wider shot including more people in the frame and still show a lot of drinks.

After the first round of drinks had been taken from the table, the rest of the empty glasses was filled and was just waiting to be consumed.

To give you an idea of what I was looking for in the first place, here’ a photo of glasses.

Most of the girls had already taken their seats in the theater waiting for a male stripper to get them going… These glasses was never touched. I waited patiently for a couple of girls or three to come and take a glass…

New stuff

Brian — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:33:45 +0000

Here’s a handful of photos taken from various assignments as of late.

A small store specializing in car racing books and miniature car models had a small Ferrari gathering at their store. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/9 1/200sec, ISO160.

Nicolas is a huge basketball prospect in Denmark. At the age of 17 he has been around the National team development system. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/10 1/250sec, ISO100.

Danish Band Big Fat Snake closed the one day music festival - Rockfesten. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 120mm, f/2.8 1/400sec, ISO640.

‘Greve’s’ Women’s Marching band performs at the annual city festival. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 200mm, f/2.8 1/640sec, ISO200.

A ferris wheel at the annual city festival. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 200mm, f/25 1/320sec, ISO100.

Students celebrating their final day in school with the traditional water and shaving foam fight. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 98mm, f/2.8 1/1000sec, ISO100.

An update

Brian — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:03:59 +0000

Death in the family has kept my mind on anything else but this blog. Now that everything is back to normal (as normal as it can get) I figured it was time to give a little update on what I’ve been doing..

A couple of concerts, a couple of soccer games, some handball, a demonstration and other stuff is among what I’ve been pointing my camera at.

I made a small gallery with captions in it with some of the most recent stuff I’ve been doing.

Click image to launch.

Lost and found

Brian — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:44:39 +0000

Every now and then I track back through the past couple of weeks or months or work, just to see what I’ve been shooting. And maybe some kind of hope that I can see a progression in my work.

Here’s a few photos that never found its way to this blog.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/160sec, ISO500. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

click to enlarge

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/60sec, ISO400. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

click to enlarge

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/60sec, ISO400. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

click to enlarge

Crash crash snow and hip hop

Brian — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:59:18 +0000

What an interesting week it has been. Two car crashes, snow and the rehearsals for a hip hop theatrical play. That’s just some of the stuff I’ve been covering this past week.

I actually started out covering a car crash on the very first day I worked for the paper. Since then I can only recall arriving at a crash scene maybe twice where the cars and stuff was still there. This past week I was called out to two major crashes.

Friday (last week) some guy had to dodge an old woman crossing the street with her dog to avoid hitting her. He ended up hitting a light post and running over three small trees before coming to a hold when hitting a fourth tree.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 70mm, f/2.8 1/400sec, ISO250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

A front view of the car shows the damage.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/100sec, ISO250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Monday as I arrived at the paper I got a phone call a colleague who had seen fire trucks and ambulances fly down the street past our office. The police scanner didn’t really give anything so I just drove in the direction I was told the fire trucks was going. I had a pretty good idea where it could be and I was right.

I never heard what happened but from what I saw at the scene it looked like somebody ran a red light broadsiding a car, plowing it into a traffic signal post.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 23mm, f/4 1/800sec, ISO200. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

I woke up Wednesday morning around 6.45am, having an assignment at 7.45am. I looked out the window and saw white trees and snow covering the grass and parking lot. My boss has been bugging me for ‘winter’ shots almost for as long as I can remember. Last year’s winter was basically only a couple of days. It’s hard to get good winter (read: pictures with snow or ice) shots when it’s over cast. So I was waiting for a sunny day with snow. You can’t exactly buy that on Ebay so when I saw that the sun was out and everything was basically what I was waiting for, it was all about getting out of the door as fast as possible before the snow melted away. On the way to the morning assignment the snow began falling from the trees as it was melting, so no time to chat at the first assignment. It was just getting it done and on my way again. I got what I wanted.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 70mm, f/2.8 1/1250sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 70mm, f/2.8 1/1600sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Thursday I was assigned to cover the rehearsals to a hip hop theatrical play that a local boy is in. It was pretty cool. I enjoy watching those guys dance!

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/320sec, ISO1250, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 23mm, f/4 1/320sec, ISO1250, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

This is the local kid. I figured it would be a good idea to shoot a solo shot of him.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 28mm, f/4 1/320sec, ISO1250, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)