Kevan O’Meara

Kevan O’Meara is a master of photography. If you’ve been to the major Taekwondo events around the USA the last few years, you’ve probably seen Kevan working. He walks around with his digital cameras and long lenses, in hand, around his neck, and in the backpack he always keeps close at hand. Kevan was at the 2008 World Taekwondo Hanmadang in Anaheim, working the event from the opening moment until the closing match every day. He’s a marathon man at these events, going all day, every day; to effectively capture the essence of the event, the action and faces forever, through his lens. He took thousands of photos, and has been generous to share them with us. Traditionally, photographers contribute a huge amount to the visual experience and understanding the feel of an event. The only credit they receive is their name below their photos. I have learned a great deal about this man and consider it important that his story be told. Although he does not train in Taekwondo, he has the heart and spirit of a black belt, and is a master at his craft.

Mr. O’Meara came to Taekwondo through his wife Irene, a black belt with Kings Taekwondo in Chatsworth, California. Irene is an attorney practicing family law. She is an avid competitor, and along with her club, these talented athletes from Kings Taekwondo travel around the country competing. Kevan, following Irene from event to event, began to direct his 35 years of experience and unique artistic way of seeing things to Taekwondo photography.

Kevan himself is an avid athlete, outdoorsman and international traveler. By profession he is an electrical engineer with numerous patents to his credit, working with Northrop Grumman. He rides a state of the art mountain bike called an Intense Tracer, and is an avid trail runner.  He runs and rides in the rocky Santa Susana Mountains near his home in Chatsworth.  He and Irene are parents to sons Alex and Adrian. While Alex is still at university, Adrian has graduated from Stanford and started his own business called JetPens.

Mr. O’Meara’s work includes unique and beautiful images of architecture, high dynamic range (HDR) photography, cityscapes, urban photos, landscapes and scenic’s, and sports. In essence” just about everything”, says Kevan. “Each presents their own challenges”. Since he started using digital photography six years ago, Kevan has taken more than 150,000 photographs. He has been generous in allowing us to present some of his work to USTC members and visitors to our website. A greater variety and quantity of his work can be seen online at www.tko.smugmug.com/ .

We hope you enjoy and appreciate his images from Hanmadang, presented here as a photographic essay.

Allan Schein

USTC columnist