The variety of photos uploaded to social media day-after-day probably sits someplace within the billions. But for excessive motion photographer, Volodya Voronin, standing out among the many noise is a problem he approaches with planning, ingenuity – and typically duct tape.
Voronin’s portfolio, like many motion photographers, is crammed with photographs of expertly timed pictures of athletes, however Voronin’s work isn’t simply completely timed pictures. From a BMX rider framed inside a single water droplet to a skateboarder framed inside a light-weight bulb, Voronin meshes motion pictures with artistic composition, uncommon foregrounds and inventive lighting.
Voronin, often known as @actiongrapher on Instagram, believes {a photograph} ought to have each effort and a narrative behind it. “Cameras do almost everything for you – perfect autofocus, crazy frame rates, huge dynamic range, insane stabilization. And almost everyone now has a camera in a pocket,” he stated.
“So, for me, just pressing a button and adjusting color grading in post isn’t satisfying any more. I’m always thinking about how I can create a shot that hasn’t been seen before. Or how I can highlight the athlete’s skills in an unusual style – where pressing the shutter is just the final step, not the core of the process.”
While a lot of Voronin’s work mixes the already difficult style of maximum sports activities pictures with sudden foreground parts, his work isn’t the results of Photoshop composites or AI. Instead, the photographer goals to get it proper in digicam – when it’s protected to take action – utilizing planning and weird pictures “ingredients.”
In his shot of a BMX rider framed inside a single water, for instance, Voronin taped blades of grass on a stand, used a syringe so as to add droplets of water, and shot at f/16 to get each the water and the athlete in focus.
“I could honestly be a duct tape ambassador,” the photographer jokes, noting that he has duct tape in each bag, usually in a number of differing kinds (like waterproof and double-sided) and a number of colours. Ropes, scissors, a knife and weights and cables are additionally usually a part of the photographer’s gear equipment.
Lighting is as a lot part of Voronin’s type as uncommon compositions. In one viral shot, he used duct tape and water bottles to submerge a flash beneath the ice to focus on a skater.
In certainly one of his most difficult photographs, he used a ladder and a rope to place a light-weight over the water, then headed beneath the water to seize a shot of an athlete and bike completely framed by blue water and light-weight.
That explicit picture, he says, took three totally different makes an attempt, every time returning to the placement with perception from the earlier try and concepts on the right way to overcome these challenges.
While a lot of his photographs took hours and even a number of days to get the shot proper in digicam, Voronin avoids excessive picture enhancing in his motion pictures. (Voronin’s business and branded tasks might typically use heavier picture enhancing when wanted, work that’s separate from his motion portfolio.)
Heavy compositing in a style meant to point out what an athlete is able to feels dishonest, he says. Voronin makes use of picture enhancing to make coloration corrections and clear up small distractions like trash or graffiti.
Getting the shot in digicam, nonetheless, is at all times balanced with the necessity to hold the athletes protected. Rarely, he’ll increase on parts like water splashes which can be already within the core of the picture, solely when persevering with to push for the shot in-camera would jeopardize security.
“For me, there is a balance. In my personal credo, I have two rules: never fake the athlete’s trick (don’t move or adjust their position) and never fake the environment. The core of the photo must always be real.”
Beyond the assortment of duct tape and security instruments like weights and cables, Voronin’s digicam bag features a Sony A9 III. His favorite lenses are primes like the Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM, 35mm f/1.4 GM, 50mm f/1.2 GM and 85mm f/1.4 GM II, but he’ll reach for the 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II when he needs extra reach.
“I recently switched from the Sony A7 IV to the A9 III,” he said. “And all I can say is the A9 III is absolutely perfect for anyone working with flashes. I don’t so much care about autofocus or fps, it was already good in A7 IV, but the global shutter opens up possibilities that simply didn’t exist before.
“Now I’m just waiting for flash manufacturers to fully support global shutter, because right now making use of that potential can still be a bit time-consuming.”
The most time-consuming part of setting up the shot, Voronin says, is often getting the lighting right. Not because using flash itself is complicated, but because the light usually needs to end up in an unusual location, like up a tree or at the top of a bridge. He’s even swam lights out to an island, in the dark, for a sunrise cliff jump shoot.
“Don’t be afraid to grab a flash and start experimenting,” he says. “I see many people avoid flashes because they think it’s too complicated. It’s really not. Just get the cheapest on-camera flash and a trigger (to fire the flash remotely), then play around.
“After a couple of weeks, the fear will be gone, and you’ll see the huge creative potential that flashes can unlock for you. And don’t forget that the sun is quite a powerful light, so you can always use it as a second one.”
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