Parkour Kids

[RichB]

Having been madly busy for a couple of weeks yesterday I was in London and had a couple of hours spare; so I wondered around Southbank and happened upon a group of kids practicing parkour. They were eager to be photographed and here are the results, sorry there are quite a few of them . I would love to hear any comments about them.















and the one I've already posted up in the Mini competition.


All taken with a 550d + 18-55 kit lens + 550ex flash

[Donald]

Just wrote a long reply and it's disappeared. !?

'Freefall' = Brilliant

Why? - No distracting buildings. Face of young person in view. Exposure - bang on. Content/composition - amazing

ps - What exactly is 'parkour'? Sorry, I'm old!

[RichB]

Thanks, parkour is a pastime where people throw themselves around urban environments, leaping between buildings doing summersaults etc. These guys were jumping off the embankment wall onto the sand below doing various flips and things.

[Dave Humphries]

If you watch commercial TV Donald, think of the Panasonic G2 advert



(but I only guessed it)

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rich,

Great series and it looks like you need a good sense of timing to get them right.

Was getting out of the landing zone an issue?
A bet there was some sand to clean off your kit too.

Just shows what's possible with a good idea, some bottle and even basic kit, well done.

Cheers,

[RichB]

Cheers, I really enjoyed taking them.

Keeping out of the way wasn't too tricky I just made sure I sat on sand they hadn't messed up already, figured if they hadn't landed there before... they were pretty careful not to land on me too. Timing was, as you say, tricky and I was really paranoid about the sand. A bit of it ended up on the camera but I was as careful as I could be.

The technical issue I had was that the flash wasn't powerful enough on high speed sync, plus I wanted to properly freeze the shot, and it was reasonably bright so I kept on having to fiddle around to keep the ambient light down.

[rpcrowe]

Absolutely great shots...

[ScoutR]

All amazing, but "Freefall" is special

Wendy

[Wirefox]

Great set Rich. I saw some kids doing this in our local town one evening. It is amazing what they can do. London Falling (nice play on that atypical Clash track) is my choice because it is more naturally lit and St Pauls in the backdrop puts it into context. You were obviously influenced by music with this set London Calling and the Kids are Alright (The Who)

[RichB]

Thanks folks, I was pretty chuffed with them. Good to see you noticed the music links Steve (you missed Michael Jackson's Off The Wall though), thought it was appropriate given the associated thread. They were doing some pretty good stuff and were really nice guys too.

[tb72]

impressive shots

[Wirefox]

you missed Michael Jackson's Off The Wall though

I cant say I have ever missed Michael Jackson

I think its great taht these kids are doing something like this. I have always had the wimps aversion to organised sport (and floppy hair) but this sort of stuff is really something.