middle east

Powerhouse Eva

Eva Clarke and I have competed in races together a few times now. She’s upfront and I get to hang around somewhere in the middle. We recently shot the Under Armour Middle East launch campaign together.

Eva has an inspiring accolade of sports achievements under her belt but when checking out her Facebook page pre the UA shoot, I found a page rich with inspiring stories and achievements but pretty weak on strong visuals. I reached out to her and we spent a couple of hours in the gym building a bank of images to help Eva tell her story.

Eva-Clarke-May16-10
Eva-Clarke-May16-17

Eva-Clarke-May16-20

I had no real game plan when we started. Normally, I have quite a clear idea on deliverables and creative direction but on this occasion it was athlete led. I wanted Eva to inspire me so we just played around a lot. My motto is always to shoot ‘real people in real places’. Eva is certainly real and she commands the gym, it’s her place. We collaborated well with ideas feeding ideas… add some strobes and a camera and we got some pretty cool frames…

Wk.

Going hard at Under Armour Launch Campaign #1

Just before the summer I shot the Middle East launch campaign for Under Armour, in conjunction with their official launch in the region. Thanks to agency BWM+ and along with their CD Greg we worked on one super strong image showcasing local athlete, Grant Goes, posing in a push up hold. I love working with real time athletes. True RAW power. They move effortlessly and fluidly, with authentic and perfect form.

Below behind the scenes video is the shoot in 90 seconds…

I shot using a killer PhaseOne medium format camera, allowing for huge end production printouts. It’s not always easy to shoot sports at one frame per second, but once you get the image right, the fine detail is amazing. Endless sharpness and tons of data to pull details back into the image. There is so much good to say about medium format.

Wouter-Kingma-Blog-for-Under-Armour-campaign-with-Grant-Goes-1

Thanks to Fairmont The Palm hotel for hosting us. The view from their beach is a stunner. Gotta get back there soon to chill and go sundowner.

Great gig. Thanks team for making it all happen.

Wk.

Lululemon Brand Ambassadors – part one

My first gig following my summer exodus saw me get straight back into the creative work I so love to do.

Lululemon is a brand I’ve fallen in love with. Originally a yoga fashion brand from Canada, it’s now expanded into an athletic apparel company. With their first store soon to open in the Middle East, there was a need for regional stories and images so Lululemon’s brand team connected with like minded people in the local community and created a Middle East team of ambassadors.

Over five sessions, I got to photograph these awesome individuals. Each one was genuinely a pleasure to work with and at the pinnacle of their sport. I always love working with professional athletes. They understand their sport better than anyone else and they always look amazing. A strong collaboration with the photographer always translates into strong visuals. Lululemon has pretty clear (photography) brand guidelines which, as luck would have it, works perfectly with how I like to shoot as well; un-staged, naturally lit, authentic impactful imagery.

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 07

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 06

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 05

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 10

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 12

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 11

In this post you’ll find Yogi Melissa, Spinning Nour and Barre Karlee. All the images were shot either on the beach or at the studio they teach in. We mostly shot with the light available but with Nour I had to bring in a little flash, just to have a bit more control in the dark spinning studio.My understanding of the term ‘elasticity’ was redefined during these shoots.

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 09

Wouter Kingma Blog for Lululemon post one 08

It was fascinating to see how Melissa and Karlee would literally fold themselves in two and have perfect poise in all manner of poses. It must be like playing hide and seek yourself, as your head pops out from all different parts of the body.

True masters at work, the entire team!

Wk.

Falcons of Arabia – launched!

I always find it fascinating how business ticks along. Well over two years ago now, I received an email from sports marketing client, Professional Sports Group (PSG), asking whether I had any falcon images. I did as it happened and shared them with the group. It then went quiet for a while, as it sometime does, before a call out of the blue with the question, “Are you interested in doing a book about falcons?”. 

Now two years on along with 35,000 raw files, 14 days of shooting, hours of research, three edits and 10,000 words, we’ve finally just launched an amazing book, Falcons of Arabia. Call me biased if you will but I’ve received truly humbling feedback from local Emirati’s on reviewing early copies of the book and during my exhibition at Emirates Palace. Their acknowledgment and enthusiasm has filled me with pride and endorses our approach to shooting the subject.

Wouter-Kingma-Blog-Falcons-of-Arabia-book-6

 

The book was created for investment managers, Columbia Threadneedle, who will be hand delivering copies to their high end clientele. Nothing like this has ever been done before and I’m sure the book will provide them great recognition and curiosity. From the book, we’ve selected twenty prints which will go on an international exhibition tour. The first stop was Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace. London comes next with other cities to follow.

Falcons-of-Arabia-launch-at-Emirates-Palace-12

Falcons-of-Arabia-launch-at-Emirates-Palace-22

With Jamie Cunningham, CEO of Professional Sports Group.

I’ve uploaded a summary of my favourite images on my website and I’m super happy with the results. Whilst this was a great gig to work on, it was also a hard subject to shoot. Falcons are wild birds so getting them to do what you want is no easy feat. I’ve learned that raw meat is what makes them tick and a caring, professional falconer becomes your treasured partner. It’s been really interesting to see how these birds all differ, not just in looks but by their behaviour. I hope their individual characters have translated back into the images.

Wouter-Kingma-Blog-falcons-of-Arabia-post

One personal highlight occurred when returning to one of the falcon farms, deep in the desert near Sweihan. The intention to shoot was interrupted by an unexpected late lunch invitation. We sat down on the floor for a lovely traditional Arabic lunch which, as an expat, are rare occasions and always much appreciated. At the same time, I felt conscious of the time, nervously looking outside at the great light which would soon fade. Still, I’m a firm believer that you have to live the moment and enjoy the experience… and all worked well in the end as we captured some stunning images just before sunset.

Finally what a great opportunity to share the stories and book to a global audience on CNN with Becky Anderson. Below is a rough screen grab…worth a watch as the spark is at the end!

I’d like to acknowledge the great team on our side who did a grand job on art direction, research, text writing, calligraphy and in designing a truly unique book. My thanks to you all. This can only lead to more new and exciting projects together.

Wk.

New Nike brand images

Nike seem to shift their brand creative at a rate even more frequent than I buy new gear… and that’s saying something!

Wouter Kingma Blog for Nike Running Middle East 05We took some amazing environmental shots last year to put Dubai on the map at Nike Global. And now, we’re working in an entirely fresh direction. After going through an extensive 77-page brief, we’ve brought together this new set of creative content, a set of strong, black & white images, guaranteed to make an impact.

This epitomises what I really love shooting, in terms of both subject and art direction. And the style reminds me of an industry piece I want to put together called RAW. Just that… RAW. Strategically strong yet unpolished, crafted images, seemingly un-staged, moody and easy to connect with, a bit of dirt perhaps but not dirty, a blend of motion & unfiltered energy.  Sure, the focus may be a little… (more…)

New Nike brand images

Nike seem to shift their brand creative at a rate even more frequent than I buy new gear… and that’s saying something!

Wouter-Kingma-Blog-for-Nike-Running-Middle-East-05

We took some amazing environmental shots last year to put Dubai on the map at Nike Global. And now, we’re working in an entirely fresh direction. After going through an extensive 77-page brief, we’ve brought together this new set of creative content, a set of strong, black & white images, guaranteed to make an impact.

Wouter-Kingma-Blog-for-Nike-Running-Middle-East-02Wouter-Kingma-Blog-for-Nike-Running-Middle-East-01 Wouter-Kingma-Blog-for-Nike-Running-Middle-East-04Wouter-Kingma-Blog-for-Nike-Running-Middle-East-03

This epitomises what I really love shooting, in terms of both subject and art direction. And the style reminds me of an industry piece I want to put together called RAW. Just that… RAW. Strategically strong yet unpolished, crafted images, seemingly un-staged, moody and easy to connect with, a bit of dirt perhaps but not dirty, a blend of motion & unfiltered energy.  Sure, the focus may be a little… off or there may be an added strain of lens flare which might otherwise render a shot an imperfect picture, but RAW is a lifestyle and an approach to how we see the world.

So how does this filter through to the imagery we see today?

With this Nike shoot, the timing and location threw in some challenges. I knew it had to be dark and the location on the iconic Palm Jumeirah was pretty much a given. But how do you then deal with the combination of faint darkness and furiously fast athletes? Five years ago, I would have struggled badly but now we have great camera’s where you can just keep on cranking up the ISO. Most images here are taken in the range of 8.000-12.800 ISO, shooting borderline handheld shutter speed. The Canon 1DX is a master machine in such conditions, made even sweeter by my beauty lens, the 50mm f1.2.  When darkness falls, there’s just no need to call it a day!

My thanks to Tristan and Dania at JWT for their support and ideas and a big hands up to Coach Tom at PTX Dubai for coming out on his birthday and bringing his awesome crew along. Together, we made it work. Wonders! And we created RAW. In all its glory.

Wk.

Canon Trade Talks 1

I recently wrapped up a series of talks at the Sign & Graphics trade show in Dubai. It was great fun with lots of energy and a tip-top crowd.

Wouter-at-SGI-3

My talks was predominantly geared towards photographers and printing professionals… sharing real life experiences from the diverse productions and shoots we work on covering photography and (large format) printing. In a nutshell, my story ran as follows (more…)