American Flag over Jacksonville BeachTeam Fastrax flies the American flag during the Never Quit 2014 event at Jacksonville Beach

American flag flown by Team Fastrax member Paul Stanford over Jacksonville Beach during a charity event "Never Quit" an event to honor wounded veterans. Many veterans were taken for tandems during the event. To view the more images from this event please visit the Never Quit gallery

Kngsman: Secret Service feature film movie poster

Excited to announce that we have another Feature Film coming out soon. I had the pleasure to work with Craig O'Brien in England shooting the skydiving sequences for the film "Kingsman: Secret Service" also working with us doing double duty was my son Ramsey who not only assisted but was a stunt player in the skydiving sequence for the movie. That was so cool! Check out the first move trailer.

What fun!  Warner Brothers summer blockbuster "Godzilla" released just a few days ago and it already has record breaking box office numbers for 2014.  I had the privilege to work on the production of the skydiving scenes along with Craig O'Brien and an awesome team of stunt skydivers.  You may view the Godzilla trailer containing part of the skydiving sequence and you may also wish to visit the Godzilla image gallery for the shoot.  We welcome your comments on our Norman Kent Productions Facebook page

After seeing my work, another department of the international magazine Popular Photography decided to run a full page with an image of me in Freefall along with an interview.  How cool is that?  I kinda like it!  LOL  I know, I know, I am being a bit self absorbed but I must admit it is exciting to be acknowledged even after so many years :)

The magazine editors asked if they could have a fresh unpublished image of me therefore we had to go shoot one.  I asked my friend and fellow photographer Brian Festi to please take the picture and off we went up to altitude.  Why am I telling you this story?  Because it is so strange to be in front of the camera posing, I could not help but think as a photographer what the best angle would be and where to be for him, I am sure I was not the best subject for him as I was thinking for both of us LOL, it was comical!  I do soooo much better when I just shoot :)  

When you read the interview, please keep in mind that I my answers were formatted for non skydivers to understand and relate to.

Anyway, it was loads of fun to have this opportunity and to then see it in the pages of the magazine.

Feel free to view the published interview from Popular Photography

One of my classic images was selected for publishing in the pages of international photography magazine Popular Photography (November 2012 issue).  Although I  have been published thousands of times, it is always great to be published in magazines outside the sport.  This time, the picture was accompanied by a short article resulting in 1/3 page coverage!  On a funny note, read how the article ends, it makes it sound like I stay in the plane and shoot from the door LOL what is up with that?  The whole thing is not quite skydiver oriented but, to me its no problem, working with people outside our sport is alway difficult in that manner, still, the overall effect is positive :) 

I have always been drawn to photography as a form of sharing the general beauty in this world with others through my pictures, sharing our sport is no different, so when a magazine outside our sport selects one of my images for publishing, I know it is not because of it's skydiving value but for it's artistic appeal to general audiences, to me that is a triumph in it's own.

View the page from Popular photography

I hope that through these efforts our sport gets more positive exposure to help it grow :)  

With the upcoming release of the Warner Bros. film, Get Smart, we are now able to present some of our work that was done for the movie. Norman Kent was the Aerial Director of Photography responsible for filming the skydiving sequence in this new film. We have put together a photo gallery of images from the production of this sequence for your viewing.

In addition to having some fantastic photos available, we have a great behind-the-scenes article written by Helena Poleo. The article details some of the challenges, obstacles and situations unique to this film that the aerial filming unit encountered during production on Get Smart.

Want to look at a sneak peek of the skydiving sequence in “Get Smart”?

We are proud to announce that our sequence was chosen to be shared as a promotional piece for the movie. In this free video clip, Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 do a little interaction about the sequence before they show it to us. I was so proud to have my section in it's entirety be the one to represent the film even before the film was released!  

To view the video clip, please visit our the "Feature Films" area of our film gallery.  And feel free to send us your comments.

On September 11, the members of Team Fastrax were asked to do a demonstration jump flying 7 American flags simultaneously over Ground Zero in New York city as part of the official ceremony conducted that morning on the ground in memory of the 9/11 events.  Norman was there to capture the images. It was an emotional moment, news media reported that people started crying as the flags flew over New York skies.

Click on the image below to see some of the photos from this event. We will soon have an article about this event, please check back with us at a later time or put your email in the box on the right side of this page to sign up for email updates.

UPDATE: The special commemorative video from this historic event is now available.

UPDATE: The article entitled “Seven Flags for Seven Years Over Ground Zero” has been published. You can read it here.

Norman

Join us for Norman’s first photo and video workshop series of the year . Once again you will have the opportunity to learn from the most renowned photographer in skydiving who will be sharing his 35 years of knowledge with anyone looking to expand their skills. You can maximize your learning experience by attending this workshop as well as the  Skydiving Expo in Deland, Florida (which starts the day after our last session) during the same visit! Great opportunity to attend both!  Whether you’re a seasoned vet getting published every month or just bought your first camera and are wanting to know what’s the best way to mount it on your helmet, there is a lot to be gained from these workshops.  For more information click on the banner below.

Our latest commercial creation just started airing in the US and has been airing world-wide! I am very proud of this one. I was chosen and paired with director Sara Dunlop because we have extremely compatible styles, working with her was a pleasure as she always pushed me to get the best out of me, something that I do to others but I rarely find done to me by a director. What a great feeling to be pushed and to perform at my best! Also, the project was so large that it required me to hire other cameramen, I decided to hire the best even if we are competitors as we are all great friends too! So I got to work with Joe Jennings, Craig O’Brien and Greg Gasson, does not get much better than that! I also had the great pleasure to work with very talented skydivers including my son Ramsey who performed awesome and was well liked by the director for his unique Freefall style. The jumpers in front of the camera were: Ramsey Kent (smoke), Steve Curtis (smoke), John Hamilton (Tandem master), Jason Peters (light) and of course Roberta Mancino. This effort resulted in a very artistic commercial which i LOVE. What fun! Please feel free to go to our Video section to view the HTC commercial.