Portraits of Tuari, a master of Māori martial arts. He is holding a patu, which was made by his father-in-law.
It was a real honour and a delight to photograph Tuari, and I am so pleased he could make his way up to my studio in Motobu. My goal is to visit him in New Zealand, as Tuari has offered me the opportunity to document Māori martial arts on location in beautiful Aotearoa.

For those interested in the technical specs….

I photographed Tuari in my studio with the Sony A7RIV and the 70-200 GM2. The keylight was a Profoto D2 strobe with a gridded soft white beauty dish. The rim lights were two 1×4′ gridded softboxes with Proheads powered by a pro-7A 1200W generator. The background is a black felt on a Manfrotto / Lastolite EzyFrame.

On his previous visit to Okinawa, I did a quick interview with Tuari and took some pics of him on the local beach here in Motobu.

It is always a pleasure to hang out with Tuari, often swapping anecdotes of our adventures/misadventures around the world. One of my favorite stories is about the time he was Jonah Lomu’s body double for a McDonald’s commercial, where for insurance purposes Lomu was not allowed to run through a wall….