Photographer research

 

       The purpose of this research paper is to present one photographer that really awakes my interest. For this reason, I have chosen to introduce one photographer who made a great impression on me. His name is Tim McKenna. I feel like I could relate to his work because I love extreme sports photos and beautiful landscapes.

He was born in Sydney in 1968 close to Australia’s famous surfing beaches. He spent a part of his childhood in Australia but most of it in South West France, on the Atlantic coast.

In 1986, he returned to Australia and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in the University of Queensland.

With his degree in the pocket, he decided to focus on photography. Surf Life in Australia and Surf Session in France were the first press companies to notice his potential. In 1990, the European sportswear company Oxbow hired him and triggered his interest in other extreme sports, being already a surfer himself. His passion and job took him over 30 countries and gave him the opportunity to work with champions such as Andy Irons, Patrick Edlinger, Laird Hamilton, Jean Michel Bayle and many more. His works in sport was ranged from surfing, rock climbing, snowboarding, motocross, and wind surf. His first visit to French Polynesia in 1996 resulted in Love at first sight. With the beauty of the country, he finally decided to settle to Tahiti. However, he still tours the world along with capturing the magic of Polynesian life. In just 20 years, he has become recognized as one of the best outdoor photographers. Not only his action shots make the covers of the leading surf, snowboard, windsurf and motocross magazines, but also his landscape and fashion shots appear in numerous posters, ads and billboard around the world.

 

Here are some samples of his works:

     This photographer greatly inspires me because of the way he uses nature to beautify his work. The use of vibrant colors adds something that really attracts my eyes. He is really passionate about photography. He is always looking around him, observing the elements of nature and seeking for inspirations on how to use nature to make wonderful pictures. Always ready to shoot pictures wherever he goes. His use of light in all his compositions is just amazing, no matter what time of the day or in whatever situation, he always gets great photos. His ways of working with models in fashion photography shows his effectiveness at getting to know the models and making them comfortable in front of the camera. Though, he is well known in sports photography, he has just shown his potential in other style of photography such fashion and landscape. The way he put the Polynesian landscapes and its culture caught my attention on his love for nature and French Polynesia.