Photography News Issue 56

Photography News | Issue 56 | photographynews.co.uk

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Disabled swimmer Darko Duric has pushed himself to become a Paralympian, a double world champion and to break the world record in the 50mButterfly S4 class. When shooting Darko’s portrait and action shot, Samowanted to convey his story immediately. “Darko only has one arm, but the water gives himwings, somehow. That’s what I wanted to show,” says Samo. The sports shoot took place at a pool in Ljubljana, Slovenia. With Darko posing on a diving board for the portrait, Samo got two assistants to throwbuckets of water at him from left and right, creatingwing-like shapes with the water before it hit the ground. Samo froze themovement of the water with his studio flashes, having placed themain light three metres in front of the swimmer and a backlight fivemetres above him. emphasise both their sporting prowess and the considerable obstacles they have had to overcome. His two camera bodies for these shoots were the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the Canon EOS 6D Mark II, fitted with Canon's EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens, the EF 24- 70mm f/2.8L II USM lens, the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens, and the EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens. The combination of bodies and lenses enabled Samo to explore a range of creative approaches – each shoot allowing him to execute a different challenging technical approach, from light trails to underwater action shots. To achieve his creative vision, Samo photographed his subjects in two contrasting ways. One image was a portrait, revealing their personalities and showing the physical challenges they faced, while the other was a dynamic action shot that put the focus on their courage, determination and

To see videos and read more about how Samo Vidic created the in-camera effects in his Defying the Odds series, visit www.canon.co.uk/pro/stories

IMAGES Samo photographed sprinter Libby Clegg (top), climber Anoushé Husain (above) and skateboarder Felipe Nunes (right).

achievements. The two resulting images of each athlete are presented as diptychs, which show both sides of their lives. Slovenian swimmer Darko Duric, who was born with only

one arm and no legs, features alongside Felipe Nunes, a Brazilian skateboarder who lost his legs in a train accident when he was a child. The other two athletes Samo photographed were

British Husain,

climber

Anoushé

Samo’s remarkable series of dynamic, creative and striking images of high-achieving disabled athletescelebratesthepersonalities, skills and determination of some truly inspirational people.

born her right arm below her elbow, and visually impaired sprinter and British Paralympic gold medallist Libby Clegg. without

Case study: photographing Darko

pool. The Canon EOS 5DMark IV communicatedwith the lights via cables connected to a transmitter set up beside the pool. Samo used the camera’s AI Servo setting to get pin-sharp images, and hemade use of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV’s fast, continuous shooting mode to get 6.5 frames-per-second. “If you photograph a swimmer with two arms, you havemore chances of a good shot, but because Darko only has one arm, I needed tomake sure I maximisedmy opportunities to capture him in a striking position [with his right arm reaching forwards and face visible],” he explains. “It was my first time shooting with the Canon EOS 5DMark IV underwater, and everythingworked perfectly. The autofocus was great, and all the images are sharp, which is themost important thing.”

in the frame, and I don't like to do that with portraits,” Samo continues. “Besides, the white walls were about twometres fromDarko, so they would have featured a lot more in a wide-angle shot and it would have been impossible to achieve the effect of the dark backgroundwhile standing so close to him.” He did, however, use his Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USMwide- angle lens for the second photo: an underwater shot of Darko swimming in the pool. For the action shot, Samo set up two studio flashes beside the pool, lighting the subject fromabove, and one behind a porthole in the pool, pointing at the subject from below the water's surface. Then he went underwater in his scuba diving gear to photograph Darko in action, swimming across the

ABOVE In this image, Samo creates a wing-like effect with the splashes of water to capture a sense of Darko’s power and majesty in the water.

“I had planned on shooting the portrait from the water, but then I would have had to stand ametre and a half from the subject and use a wide-angle lens to get the subject

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