I was approached by Iaido instructor, Chris Gilham, to shoot his club. I’d never done this before, and so did some homework on other photography done in this area, and Iaido itself. I visited the dojo two times, the first time was casual, to get a feel of their movement, and let the students be comfortable with me. The next visit I used one light (a Q-flash). I set up an area in the gym for each student to come and go through a routine, which I then worked around them. These guys were focused which made it easy. The images themselves took on a life on their own. Once I sat at the computer, I just started working and the final results are what you see. CS2 was my companion with this. With these images, I wanted the subject, the movement, their focus to be the forefront in the story.

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