I have been thinking about taking some Parkour action photos for a long time now, and I was very happy when a superb opportunity knocked on my door - one of Germany's finest athletes, Waldi Müller, actually lives in my home city Bayreuth. As soon as I realized that, I contacted him via social media. As it turned out, he's a very motivated photo model and an allround nice guy, which helped the outcome quite much I guess!
Over the last couple weeks we were able to squeeze in a handful of shootings. At first I was quite clueless about the specialties of Parkour, but as time went by I think I got a general feel for the interesting moments... (tell me if I'm wrong there... ;) )
The most exciting thing about this new field of photography for me is the possibility to include artistic actions and trickery into everyday surroundings - without the need for any kind of sports equipment. It is all about the strength and elegance that your own body can provide... it's about the art of movement - which sounds very poetic and actually I think it really is!
Laid out backflip. This shot was a cash-or-trash-shot: since it was already too dark to see anything, Waldi did the jump exactly once. Luckily, I was able to frame him between the railings at the perfect upside-down moment. At first glance, the photo tends to irritate people ;)
Work In Progress - before I was able to set up my lights, the sky had already lost its color. But we'll be back for sure and then we'll be ready for some fancy color works in the skies!
Wings... it almost seems as if Waldi flies through his playground, a burnt-down and abandoned industrial facility.
This is a sports discipline that screams for allinone-photography... this was my first attempt at a sequence, I think it works quite well already, although there's certainly room for improvement left!
Parkour requires quite an impressive mix of strength, agility and creative vision - I'm lucky to have one of the best Parkour athletes as my photo model. Check him out here: http://www.facebook.com/waldi.mueller
I admit, I can't name all of the tricks that Waldi has pulled so far - this should be something flippy-twisty-awesome.
I took this photo during our very first session. I'm not 100% happy with the highlights in the background, but I think it already set a positive general vibe for the following sessions!
Make your surroundings one big playground - that's one of the main themes that I aim to realize in my shots... of course shooting flips off 4 meter real life playground obstacles really make it easier! :)
That's it - I hope you enjoyed browsing through the photos! Feel free to give my facebook photo page a like and make sure to follow me here on Behance. If you like action sports photography, I hope that my profile can be a source of inspiration from time to time :)
