Do you know this man?

 
I would love to tell you who this is but the truth is I don't know. As far as I can tell, he wasn't on the original card and I can't find him in the press kit I got from the Battle at the Nation's Capital reps. His corner man seemed to be shouting Portuguese, but his tattoos seem to reflect Asian and Pacific Islander influences.

At any rate, he won his match in convincing fashion and I love this shot of him raising his arm to deliver a hammer fist to his opponent. If you can ID this fighter, let me know so I can give him due credit.

Note to self: Next time, write down the names of the fighters before each match....
*sigh*

Body Shot

 

Got to shoot my second MMA event last Saturday night at the DC Armory (Battle at the Nation's Capital). It was..... a learning experience. First, the whole affair was rather informal with press allowed to mill about the cage area wherever they pleased. As the fighters moved around, so did the photographers and I found myself jockeying for a new position every time the fight moved to another side of the cage. There were some rounds where I didn't get one decent shot because the optimal side of the cage was already filled with photographers shoulder to shoulder.

Second, the catwalk around the cage was about twice the width of the last event I shot, which meant I couldn't get my lens as close to the cage as I would have liked. This made it much harder to get a clean shot of the fighters as the autofocus of my camera kept locking onto the chain links of the cage instead of the action inside. The night was a constant struggle trying to balance my depth of field so that the fighters were in focus but the chain links were not.

Third, I was stupidly left the exposure setting in multi-segment metering mode rather than in spot mode and didn't realize until halfway through the night after wondering why the hell my fighters were coming out blurry and overexposed. (The camera was fooled by the predominantly dark background and kept selecting slower shutter speeds to compensate.) The problem went away after I changed to spot metering, but a good portion of my shots suffered for it.

This is one that managed to come out ok. This is Beaux "Blackjack" Baker taking a kick to the ribs by Ron Foster. As nice a body shot as it is, it isn't representative of the fight. Baker dominated and submitted Foster 4 minutes into the first round. It's a good thing too. If he hadn't he'd probably never hear the end of it from his brother, Kyle, who enjoyed similar success against Foster a year earlier. (Yep, that's the same Kyle who I featured back in November. He fought last Saturday as well.)

As before, I'll feature some more shots from the event every day or so until I run out of good ones. In the meantime, I'm sifting through all of them and studying the settings of each so that I will be better next time. As a good friend of mine said, "it's only your 2nd go. Learn from it and get better next time."

The lesson learned from this weekend is: make a checklist of critical settings prior to an important event and CHECK THEM before shooting. I learned this lesson once before when I learned how to fly a plane; you'd think I would have remembered it when learning how to shoot a camera!

The First

 
Not much to say about this shot except: How great is Zoya's grin? It's the same look we all get when we accomplish something momentous for the first time. This is Zoya after she did her first clean & jerk. The smile says it all. Click here for more pics.

Projections

 

This was a neat shot: I was photographing Treefrog today while she was doing kettlebell swings. The light from the mid-day sun was pouring in through the front window and projected our Gracie Jiu Jitsu logo from the window onto the far wall of the gym.

Once again, I'm always amazed at how blind I am. Rather than look around my environment and find something interesting to shoot (like this projection), I spent most of the workout trying to force some interesting slow-shutter shots of people doing box jumps (you can see them in the Dead Weight album). The box jump shots were sorta fun, but I need to be more aware of situations that present themselves, rather than trying to concoct them. I'm beginning to realize that many of my favorite shots are the ones I didn't set out to take.

Red blood in black & white

 
Normally I don't like to post pics I haven't taken myself, but I'll make an exception for this one that Brown took today. Today's WOD was an AMRAP-20 (as many rounds as possible in 20 min) of 5 Deadlifts and 10 Burpees. We had two guests today, one of which was so vigorous with his deadlifts, he shaved the top layer of skin off his shin with the knurl of the bar. Ouch.

The original picture was a tad dark and the blood didn't really stand out. Blood, sweat, and tears always make for interesting photography, so I thought I might tweak the shot a bit. In order to emphasize blood (a common occurrence in both MMA and CrossFit), I've found that a green filter in Picasa's filtered B&W tool works wonders. And there we have it: another picture of a CrossFit casualty to add to our collection. I love it.

For more of Brown's incredibly fuzzy pictures from today's WOD, check out Thanksgiving Penance Part Dos. Yeah yeah, I know. I promise, I will show him how to use my camera one of these days. ;-)

Congrats Aaron Riley

 

Last night was an exciting night for One Spirit Martial Arts. Our very own Aaron Riley appeared on the undercard of UFC 91 and scrapped with his opponent, Jorge Gurgel. It was an exciting match, with both fighters landing some good blows.... as well as some not-so-good blows (Nice groin kick, Aaron. *grin*) But in the end, Aaron's arm was raised thanks to a unanimous decision. Much to my glee, (as well as about 20 other OSMA diehards who had joined me at the local sports bar), they televised Aaron's fight after the Couture vs. Lesner title match. I thought Aaron looked great. He was quick, had excellent defense, and seemed cool and calm while Gurgel seemed frustrated. When they announced he won, we all went crazy, even though we already knew the outcome thanks to a txt message from one of our guys who was actually attending the fights.

It makes for a whole different experience when you actually know the guy on TV. I'm still not used to that. For instance... the above picture is from one of the very first CrossFit workouts we did in our gym back in June. Aaron Riley joined us that day as well as Reshad "The Show" Woods (now at Lloyd Irvin). This was the first time I had really met Aaron and he struck me as the nicest guy- very polite, soft-spoken, and courteous. I think I even toned down my own potty mouth so as not to offend him too much. We all did the workout and vanity requires me to mention that I -a 33 yo mother of two- kicked the asses of both of these Pro MMA fighters on this particular occasion. (Reshad bristles every time I bring it up, which is why I mention it every chance I get.)

And look at Aaron now. Here he is, our very own instructor on tv, tossing head kicks at his opponent and getting bonuses for delivering the "Fight of the Night." I know he's been there before and done this many many times, but for me, it's a first. I know a fighter in the UFC. We've worked out together. And he's a super nice guy. Way to go, Aaron! We're very proud of you.

PS- If we help you move next weekend, will you treat us all to a few cold ones with that sweet bonus you just won? hahaha

The big red button

 
Yes, that is an Easy Button from Staples. We use them when we do burpees and push-ups. If your chest does not hit the button on the way down, it doesn't count. It can get pretty noisy some days when we're all cranking out loads of burpees and the sound of "Well that was easy" and "It's your house" overpower the heavy metal coming in over the speakers. The fact that it says "Easy" right on the button is a little annoying too. CrossFit is never "easy".

I used Picasa's focal B&W for this shot because the button was a perfect circle and lent itself well to being emphasized.

On Veteran's Day...

 
...I would like to acknowledge my friends at the gym who have served their country selflessly and honorably in the US military. Porkbelly, Brown, Freeze, Dan C, Brad, Big Ben, and the countless others who know the pride of wearing a uniform for our country- it is an honor to know each and every one of you. Same to my friends across the globe who are serving right now in far off places. Thank you and your families for the sacrifices you have made.

And thanks to veterans everywhere, not just US personnel, but members of the armed forces in the countries of our neighbors and of our friends around the globe. I've had the privilege of knowing Aussies, Brits, Canadians, and Netherlanders, who are serving or have served in their respective services. Wherever you are, know that your actions are appreciated.

And since I'm on a roll with the All-Military love fest, let me finish with a special shout out to CrossFit Fort Meade for checking out my blog and leaving some kind words the other day. You put a smile on my dial. Thanks for that. And thanks for your service too.

Focus point: Kyle Baker

 
Two weeks ago I posted a shot I took of James 'Binky' Jones after being defeated by Kyle Baker during UWC Confrontation. Tonight it's Kyle's turn.

One thing was immediately obvious when Baker entered the ring: he was absolutely chiseled. He was also phenomenal to watch, technique-wise. He landed several spectacular kicks that took the wind right out of Binky and, as I mentioned earlier, the other photographers and I kept exchanging looks of disbelief as he relentlessly and ruthlessly took Binky apart. It was a great fight to shoot with two extremely athletic fighters, devastating blows, and amazing heart shown by both. I enjoyed it immensely.

I love this shot of Kyle, except for one thing: it cuts off his legs. Aaarrgh! I didn't realize it until later, but I should have used the select mode and set a different focus point toward the top of the viewfinder, not the center (spot) one. If I had done that, I could have focused on his face and still had room in the frame for his lower body. Instead, I focused (and centered) on his tattooed shoulder and cut off his legs.

I even remember complaining to one of the other photographers, "It's so hard to focus on their face and then recompose when they're moving so fast..." (And it's next to impossible to do this if you're using continuous autofocus.) Nobody offered me a better technique so I struggled through taking shot after shot of fighters chopped off at the knees. It never occurred to me to use a different focus point towards the top of the frame and avoid the problem altogether.

So that's why I'm including this picture. If anybody else out there is just learning to photograph MMA (or boxing, or any fast-paced sport) and you're trying to get a full-body shot of some totally ripped athlete (like Kyle Baker), play around with selecting different focus points. I've tried it now several times at other sporting events and it works beautifully. I can't wait to put it to use at the next fight.

Edited to add... Just found out the next UWC fight is scheduled for Feb 21. Yeah baby! No card yet, but who cares? It's a cagefight!

Anointing the Choir Boy

 
The first shot I ever got of Ron "Choir Boy" Stallings was back in April as he was getting body-slammed into the floor by my friend Reshad Woods. The impact knocked him out and, when the ref failed to stop the fight, Reshad went back and punched him in the head just for good measure. It was a pretty fantastic knockout and I believe you can watch the whole thing here (UWC Invasion Fight 1). Shortly after Reshad's arm was raised, Stallings was sent to the hospital.

Unfortunately, my pictures weren't as spectacular. I was trying to take pictures from the cheapo nosebleed section and had a hard time getting the exposure right. The only shot I got is fuzzy and cryptic. You can barely make out Stallings' inverted body as he dangles a few inches above the floor.

Fast forward several months. It was weird being at UWC 4 with my nose pressed up to the cage as Stallings entered. I kept remembering his ragdoll body lying limp on the ground after being picked up and slammed down Rampage Jackson-style. But things were different on this night. He absolutely dominated his opponent Tony Sousa in what I thought was probably the most violent fight of the night. Much of the fight took place pressed up against my side of the cage, so I had the very bizarre experience of looking up and seeing Stallings towering over me, seemingly looking down at me. Every time he raised his fists I felt sure they would land on my face, but instead they found their target in Tony Sousa. I heard every grunt, every gutteral growl, and the smack of every fist as it connected with Sousa's flesh just a few inches from my face. Many times I had to resist the very real temptation to put my own hands up, so close was the fight to my position. (ok, ok, technically, they were up because I was shooting the event, but you get my drift?)

As an aside, let me just say that it is a very odd experience to be so close to a fight and not go into defensive mode. This alone was the singular weirdest moment of the whole night- to stop for a moment and reflect on the fact that I'm coldly taking pictures while a man is getting beaten up 3 inches from my lens. Granted, both men chose to enter the cage, but during the whole fight I just had a really uneasy, almost voyeuristic feeling. It wasn't so much that I felt bad for Sousa; no, I felt uncomfortable with the proximity of the situation. If somebody's throwing punches that close to me, it's "fight or flight" that kicks in, not "photography."

Anyway, rather than post a shot of Sousa getting mauled by the Choir Boy, I thought I'd go with a shot that was more... well, Choir Boy-ish. Contrary to the fight, Stallings' 1-minute rest was spent sitting quietly, almost in reflection. Here, he almost looks tired (if he was, he didn't show it during the fight). You can't tell that he's winning just by looking at him. Lloyd Irvin is tending to him, re-applying Vaseline to his forehead, giving him sage wisdom. After this picture was taken, Stallings switched on once again,devastating Sousa and knocking him out 1 minute into the 2nd round.

Ring Girls

 
What would a fight night be without ring girls?

I was lucky; They were sitting just to my left the whole night and I got tons of shots of them (much to the amusement of the security guards who gave me high-fives and asked to see the shot every time I took a picture of the ladies.) I got shots of them posing with fans, strutting around the cage holding up the round cards, blowing kisses to the audience, etc., all the usual shots. But this is my favorite for the simple reason that they're just being themselves. A few of them were watching the fight. One of them was putting on makeup. And one of them was looking right back at me. I think she makes the photo most interesting; you let your eye wander all over them thinking you've caught them unawares, and then you realize you're being watched by one of them at the same time.

I had a hard time cropping this. I'm doing a lot of reading up on composition lately and so I wanted to crop it so that the face of the woman looking at me was at one of the intersections of that invisible "rule of thirds" grid. But I was limited in what I could do. She's right in the middle of the group, so any shift I made to put her at the left or right third meant that one or more of the girls to her left or right were getting axed. I would have preferred to use a rectangle, but there was a big ol' cardboard card cutting off the blonde on the left and distracting fans to the right, so all of the rectangles I tried were awkward-looking. I settled on a square but if I had thought about it at the time, I might have composed it differently to avoid the issues I had with it. Unfortunately, it was one of those "quick get it now" shots so I didn't have much time to think. I'm glad I snapped it, though, because it's my favorite of all the ring girls I took.

EDITED TO ADD:
Ok, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I've just uploaded the following alternate crop. For all the readers out there who have an opinion on these things, which do you prefer? The square crop (above)? or the rectangle crop (below)?

 

The gloves do nothing

 
It is well known that the 4 oz gloves that MMA fighters wear are meant only to protect the fighter's own hands and not much else. By the looks of this picture, it's clear those gloves do nothing to soften the blows being dealt by Kris "Savage" McCray onto the near-prostrate Joey Kirwan.

Let me set the scene for you: This was the first fight of the night. It was also McCray's professional debut. In front of a hometown crowd. The house was jumping and when McCray submitted his opponent in under 2 minutes of the first round, I thought the roof was going to cave in. He completely dominated Kirwan, who just couldn't turn the tables.

I was struck by this moment when McCray had taken Kirwan's back and was starting to rain down hell with his fists. I remember seeing Kirwan's gloved hand desperately trying to protect his head, the word "COMBAT" emblazoned across the knuckles. It just seemed so incongruous to me, I focused on the glove instead of the fighter and snapped away.

After the fight was over, McCray rejoiced in his victory to a wild and adoring crowd while Kirwan fought back tears on the other side of the cage. I got that shot, too:
 
As the editor of my community newspaper told me, every photo should tell a story in itself. I think this one does, even if you didn't know what happened during the fight. It's obvious how it ended. The cameraman looking past Kirwan toward an unseen victor, and Kirwan's wavering lip, tell you all you need to know. I'm glad my camera was on him, even if the others weren't.

Defeat

 
This is James "Binky" Jones after 3 rounds with Kyle Baker. Arguably the most exciting fight of the night, I remember trading looks of amazement with the other photographers at the end of each round; we just couldn't believe what we were watching.

Binky held out for 3 rounds where most men would have crumbled. Baker's kicks were devastating and the amount of punishment he meted out with those legs was almost obscene. Yet Binky held on, eating blow after blow. Front kicks, back kicks, roundhouse kicks.... he took them all. Not only did he take them, he kept going back for more. For three rounds.

When it was all over, the unanimous decision went to Baker.

I have dozens of shots of Kyle looking magnificently ripped, landing kicks and punches, executing a near perfect technical game. But this photo of a fallen Binky is my favorite from that fight. In fact, many of my most interesting shots from that night were of the defeated- the broken contenders trying to remain stoic and professional while fighting through humiliation and tears. I guess it's the sense of utter exhaustion conveyed in a photo like this that draws me in. No matter how epic the battle, a winner can always find a few ounces of energy left over to rejoice at their victory; but a loser has none left to tap. Such is defeat.

It's in their blood

 
This is Johnny Curtis entering the cage.

He looks compelled to enter it, doesn't he? Like he's being drawn toward it. I think he is. The fence links from the cage are superimposed on him as he looks upward, just like that scene in Jurassic Park where the DNA sequences are projected onto the face of the velociraptor as it hunts the humans inside the visitor's center. In a way, the symbolism is the same: It's in their blood. And that's exactly the case in the world of MMA- this passion for hand-to-hand combat is in their blood. These guys want to be in that cage, they are compelled to be, no matter what.

I wish I had been clever enough to see the chain link shadows and recognized them as a neat photo opportunity, but the reality is I didn't even notice them until after I had taken the picture and saw the effect on several of my shots. This one came out the nicest, which is particularly satisfying because I know Johnny Curtis from my gym. I've actually photographed him a couple of times during practice sessions. Most of them were quite blurry because it was low light, he was moving too fast, and... ok, let's face it, I didn't know what I was doing. haha! So it's gratifying to finally have a nice shot of him at a real event.

Unfortunately, this particular night didn't work out as we had all hoped. Johnny tore his ACL in the middle of the fight, putting him at an extreme disadvantage. His opponent exploited Johnny's misfortune and that was that. Johnny was still kind enough to talk with me a few days later and respond to some of my questions- again, another fighter showing nothing but class.

I hope that his knee heals up real quick and that he can get back to pursuing his passion. After all, it's in his blood.

LeVon's Victory

 

This is LeVon Maynard after winning his fight at UWC Confrontation. He was a pleasure to watch in the cage, and a pleasure to chat with afterwards. As the night was wrapping up and I was realizing I didn't have enough material for my article yet, I raced backstage to see if there were any other local fighters I had missed. In one of those "too good to be true" moments, all of the fighters had just lined up in the hall to get paid- a captive audience! I went down the line, asking if there were any fighters from Virginia who I hadn't spoken to yet. LeVon spoke up, "You haven't talked to me yet."

Grateful for a friendly face, I whipped out my microphone and went down the list of canned questions I had prepared earlier. He gave me a gem for each one. At one point we were interrupted when it was his turn to get paid. After he came out of the office, he picked right up where he left off. I used some of his responses in my article and the editor chose to lead the story with this photo of LeVon:
 

I still think it's my best action shot of the night. The raised arm about to strike (again), the other fighter's hands raised helplessly, the face of the onlooker, and the ref rushing in to stop the fight... this is why I love MMA. The same event elicits such different emotions depending on the perspective.

A few days ago, LeVon emailed me to thank me for interviewing him. What a class act. Given that he was my best interview of the night, I think I owe LeVon a big thank you as well for being such a dynamic personality, both in and out of the cage. So thanks, LeVon!

oh... and good luck on Oct 27th! I don't think I need to tell you to kick some butt. ;-)

Fight night!

 

Three days after UWC Confrontation and I am still on a high from sitting cage-side and photographing the event. I wanted so badly to post my pics from that night (all 500 of them... hahahaha) but had to show some restraint as I had promised several to the local newspaper that sponsored me that night, as well as some to a friend who has an MMA-themed website. Being a little fuzzy on the rules of copyright, I didn't want to post anything that might be used elsewhere.

Let me just say this: IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

When I got to the venue, the promoters met me at the Press entrance, showed me to the media room, and then walked me to my seat. I could barely believe it when I saw where I was sitting. It was too good to be true: a front row seat, so close I could press my nose up to the cage. Incredible.

One by one the other photographers showed up. Everybody was friendly. Keith Mills of Abu Dhabi news was there and showed me how to use a rolled up sweatshirt under my elbows to protect my arms from being shredded by the catwalk platform around the cage. (Keith actually uses plastic elbow pads himself.) Josh- a Marine based at Quantico who photographs for several MMA promoters, actually had the same camera body as me! That was an amazing boon as we compared settings and techniques and he showed me a thing or two about my own camera I never knew. And in another amazing coincidence, Josh's friend John turned out to be a gym-mate of mine from One Spirit. I didn't recognize him at first, but after we started talking I realized we had been sparring partners a few times.

When the fights started, I was blown away. Simply blown away. There is no describing how much better MMA is up close and personal. I'm not sure I will ever be able to enjoy a televised event again. Sitting inches away from the fighters, seeing all the little details that you miss when you're watching on TV, hearing the crack of fist on body like you've never heard it before...... it's incredible. I was out of breath after every single match.

I was also pleased as punch at how my little camera performed. I used my 50mm lens the whole time and it performed exactly as I had hoped. In fact, I was stunned at some of the shots I took. I convinced myself that the LCD screen was lying; that once I got the pictures home and saw them on a full screen I would be disappointed. And there were many many shots where that was the case. But there were also quite a few where I was pretty darn proud. To give credit where credit is due, though.... I have to say the Patriot Center has got some sweet lights. They kept the cage bright enough that I could get by with 800 ISO and still freeze the action with 1/125 shutter speeds and higher.

The photograph above is of Mike "The Hulk" Easton of Team Lloyd Irvin in Temple Hills, MD. Being so close to the cage door, I tried many times to get shots of the fighters going through their last checks by the officials before entering the cage, but each time I was frustrated because of all the people crowding the fighters. Finally I decided to change my tack. Instead of aiming for a headshot, I ducked low and took a photograph from the neck down, focusing on the gloves. I love how the shadow of the fence is projected against Easton's body. That effect came out in a few of my photographs, and each one is kinda cool.

I'll feature more photos from the fights as I have time, rather than posting them all in one album, so stay tuned!

Master class with Urijah Faber

 

Folks, my week just keeps getting better and better.

This is Urijah Faber- WEC Featherweight World Champion. I will leave you to google, wiki, etc his name and find out for yourself how big a deal he is in the world of MMA. His record is 21-1. Twenty-one to one. And tonight I got to photograph him giving a seminar to other MMA hopefuls.

Urijah is in town for the UWC event tomorrow night (see yesterday's post) and agreed to give a master class at my gym. Dave, our gym owner, invited me to take a few photos for their website and of course I jumped at the chance. I mean, how often do you get to photograph somebody you've seen on TV beating the crap out of an opponent again and again and again? (thank you Wreckcage..... yeah that's right. I'll say it. I watch Versus tv. What?)

I will say this: It was a REALLY challenging environment. We were in a larger gym space that I'd never been in before. The stark white walls bounced flash around like flubber, and every shot I took with the flash it came out with a nasty yellow tinge, even when I set the white balance manually. I shot at 1600 ISO with my 50mm lens set at f/2.0 for the vast majority of the seminar and didn't bother with the flash after the first 10 minutes. Focus was also a problem. With so little light, the lens took forever to focus, causing me to miss some of Urijah's movements (damn that dude is quick). Manual focus was not much more successful. Very few of my shots came out to my liking, but I did like that one.

I also liked this one because of its symmetry:
 
OK... time for bed. I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow..........

BIG news!!!!

To say I am excited is an understatement.

I just got confirmation this afternoon that I will be shooting the Pro-MMA cage-fighting event at Patriot Center this Saturday night. That's right, yours truly: Lil' ol' Mel, will be sitting cage-side front and center with my trusty camera while a barrage of beautiful brutality unfolds just a few feet in front of me. I won't just be within spitting distance; I'll be within reach of flying sweat, blood and tears as well!

I can't wipe the grin off my face!!!

More later, after I've calmed down a bit, but here's the event:

Woman in motion

 
One of my obsessions is depicting motion. I'm fascinated by it and enjoy the challenge of trying to capture it in a pleasing way. For a while now I've wanted to take a picture juxtaposing something heavy and stationary with something light and in motion. A week ago I set out to take that photograph using kettlebells and a very active Treefrog working out in the background. Instead I ended up with a kettlebell still-life. A few days ago, I revisited that notion and instead ended up with an exploration in framing. Today I finally came close to getting what I wanted with this shot: a combination of heavy, motionless weights and a blur of frenetic, organic motion.

I took it by placing the camera on the mats and auto-focusing on the mats in the background. I manually set the ISO to 100 to reduce the noise as much as possible. Then I set the shutter to 1/3 sec (determined through trial & error), used the 2-sec timer delay to minimize vibrations, and released the shutter.

I did this several times. Every time I did it I got a different effect. Treefrog was running through a series of exercises from box jumps to kettlebell swings to burpees to squats. Each one produced its own weird imprint. This is her doing sit-ups. In many of them, she was moving so fast she was a mere wisp of motion, almost like a gym ghost. The sit-ups helped preserve some of her form because her legs were somewhat stationary. An open door just out of view to the right provided an interesting light source that helped to outline her arms. I adjusted the color levels in GIMP to bring out some more of the mid-tones, then used Picasa's Filtered Black & White feature and crop tool.

For more shots like this one and others from today's WOD, go to Treefrog's Poison.

Ink!

 
Our instructor, Brown, has some serious ink. Today, on a whim,I decided to try and capture some of it.

It happened by accident. He had started his WOD and I was snapping the same old pictures I've been snapping for months now... wall balls, kettlebells, etc. I decided to try something new and shoot him from the neck down. The first one I took was sorta interesting, but out of focus. (I'd been toying with manual focus a lot lately since I find that the auto focus doesn't lock on fast enough in low-light conditions.) I was using my 50mm lens so I put it in aperture priority mode and used a slightly smaller aperture (f/2.4) to give me some more wiggle room in focusing. Then I decided to use some flash, albeit diminished flash (by decreasing the exposure bias) to help fill in the light. I found that this was really tricky and my flash strength had to be adjusted down over the course of the WOD. Why? Because the sweatier somebody gets, the more reflection you get from your flash! Finally, after something like 50 tries, I got a decent full-back shot while he was doing kettlebell swings. Woohoo!

As for post-processing, I played around with it alot. I tweaked the color levels in GIMP (a subject for another day), then sharpened it, cropped it, and B&W filtered it in Picasa. The red filter really works wonders for bringing out tattoos, as I've mentioned before.

Here's another shot I took after many many attempts. I knew I wanted one showing both his calf and his full sleeves at the same time so the Sumo Deadlift High-pulls with the kettlebell were perfect for that. It took me a while before I got everything in focus (more or less), but it was worth it.
 

If you'd like to see the rest of the shots from today's WOD, as well as the color versions of these, go to Chewing Qat II.

93 chances to get it right

 

It turns out, lots and lots of burpees are an excellent opportunity to experiment with your photos. Today's workout finished up with 93 consecutive burpees. I had wandered over to the scattered kettlebells to try another still-life when Treefrog started doing her burpees. Originally, I had the idea to use a long exposure of the kettlebells with Treefrog in the background as a blur of motion. But when I lay down on the mats to get the angle just right, I realized I could use the kettlebell handle as a frame for Treefrog. It was tricky because I didn't have much of a time window when she would appear. I set the camera to manual focus because the auto wouldn't lock on fast enough. I tried to focus on one of her hands, which spent the most time in the frame, and every time she appeared I would snap a shot. Immediately, I would look at the preview, make a quick adjustment (ISO, focus, angle, or shutter speed), and then snap another shot when she appeared again. I may sound crazy for saying this, but thank goodness there were so many burpees today. I never would have gotten all the wrinkles ironed out in time if we had only done 20 or 30. I think I took about 40 shots in total - almost 1 shot every other burpee. Out of those 40, this was the only one that I was sorta happy with.

But when I got home and looked at the full size image, I was disappointed to see that her face was slightly out of focus. Damn! (That's what I get for focusing on her hand.) So I sharpened it in Picasa and applied a green filter using Picasa's Filtered B&W. I also debated cropping it to remove the extra space on the left, but when I did, I realized it removed the context of the kettlebell- it just looked like I had taken the picture through a paper towel roll. When it's off-center as it is above, I think it's easier to discern that we're looking through a kettlebell.

I wish I was faster with my adjustments. It took me at least 20 shots before I got the shutter speed and ISO set, and then another 10 or so to work on timing and composition. I also had a hard time finding the right distance from the kettlebell- too close and it wasn't obvious what we were looking through; too far and it didn't leave much space for Treefrog. To see a few of the other "almost" shots of Treefrog, and more pictures from today's WOD, check out Chewing Qat. I'll admit, I'm witholding a shot of one of our other athletes until I can process it a bit more, so stay tuned for that in the next day or so...

PS- A word on today's WOD. Today's workout was in honor of the brave men killed in the Battle of Mogadishu today back in '93 (hence the 93 burpees). You remember Black Hawk Down? That was it. I had a hard time getting through the burpees thanks to all the travel I've been doing lately and my slacking off. Porkbelly (dude, we've GOTTA get you a new name!) helped me through them by sharing stories about his old Company and his friends who perished that day, and reciting the Ranger's Creed. I listened while I cranked them out. Thanks, man, it gave me something to think about and got my mind off of the pain.

Kettlebell still-life

 
From portraits to still-life....... I didn't have much time for photo-exploration today since I had to leave shortly after my WOD (so Brown gets credit for most of the shots from today's WOD; see link below) But I did find time for a quick still-life of some kettlebells that were lined up and waiting for the next heat to begin.

My preference would have been to use my 50mm lens to capture more light (and minimize the depth of field) but I didn't have time so I used the kit lens which was already on. I didn't want to use the flash so had to use a slightly longer exposure (1/30 sec) and a high ISO (1600). I set the camera on the mats and then selected the 2-sec time-delay exposure. This is a neat feature that waits 2 seconds after you've pressed the button before opening the shutter, minimizing vibrations from the button-press. It's not just for use when the camera is on a base; you can use it while hand-holding the camera, too. (I used this technique to take a night shot from the apartment in New York last week. Since I knew it was going to be a super-long exposure, I braced my arm against the window ledge, exhaled, and then used the 2-sec delay to minimize the resulting vibrations from my button-press.)

When I got home I darkened the kettlebell pic a bit using Picasa's Shadow feature but I still wasn't happy with it. I tried a few more effects before deciding on the Glow feature to give it a slightly softer look. I'm still not happy with the end result because of the noise (it's really pronounced in the full size image). But when I tried the de-speckle filter in GIMP, I just didn't like the final version.

So here is the semi-final version for now until my GIMP techniques become more sophisticated and I can clean up the noise to my liking. You can see the original uncropped shot for comparison as well as Brown's pics from the actual workout at Smoke Out.

My very first gym portrait

 
Have you ever watched The Ultimate Fighter? If you have, then you've seen all the portraits of the big name UFC fighters adorning the walls of their training facility. I love those portraits, but I almost never shoot portraits myself.

Maybe it's because I'm uncomfortable making that connection with the subject through the camera lens. I don't like staring at people and I like being stared at even less. Shooting portraits pushes me outside of my comfort zone. I much prefer to snap a picture when the person is in their own little bubble, completely unaware of me.

But today I got a little wild and crazy. Maybe it was a leftover adrenaline rush from just finishing Fight Gone Bad. Or maybe it was a subconscious nod to the out-frickin'-standing building-sized promo portrait of Michael Bisping that I passed in Times Square every day last week. Who knows? But after the Fight Gone Bad workout, I saw Dan C. reclining against the wall drinking water from a gallon milk jug. He had just finished the WOD and was a little disappointed with his score (although, between you and me, it was a very very good score. I would kill to get that score, but I digress...) He was sitting on the blue mats leaning against the red ones looking pretty dejected and -best of all- there was no clutter around him. I couldn't resist. I asked him if I could take his picture and he said yes so I snapped a couple of shots while he sat there guzzling water.

My favorite one is the one above. It's the most natural and relaxed shot of them all. My one complaint is that I didn't center the picture very well. I made the mistake of using the lens to get up-close and personal when I should have pulled back a little bit and left room for cropping. With so many pixels, I could have taken the shot much farther back and then cropped in tight without losing too much resolution. Since I started in too close, I had no room to maneuver and, unfortunately, just buzzed the top of his head.

Ah, well..... Live and learn! Next time I won't come in so tight.

For more shots from our Fight Gone Bad fundraiser, check out FGBIII.

A day in NYC

 
I'd like to give a special shout out to the fine people of CrossFit New York who opened their Black Box to me today, and especially to Allison, Keith, and Chad for their hospitality. Allison, it was great getting to know you and talk blog-shop; hopefully I can squeeze one more WOD in before I return home on Friday. You've got a great gym there. Chad, the pig roast was superb; I'm so glad you told us about it! Keith, it was very nice putting a face to the name; I'm so glad we could meet. Good luck with your endeavors, and be sure to look me up on your way to Swoope!

A few more pics from my day with CrossFit New York here.

A little bit of history....

 
Apologies to my readers. I've been on a business trip for the past week and haven't had a chance to get into a gym which means I don't have any gym pics to post here. But I did get to wear an EOD bomb suit the other day which reminded me of how I got hooked on CrossFit. Join me for a stroll down memory lane while I explain:

I'd been doing CrossFit off and on for about 5 years out of my house but never really committed myself to it. One day, I had the good fortune to meet two studs from Navy EOD while in Florida. I overheard these guys talking about CrossFit and I, thrilled to find some workout partners, mentioned I did it too. They invited me to join them the next morning for a PT session and I eagerly accepted, completely unprepared for what would follow.

The next morning I boarded the Jon & Ace Pain Train. We met at a gym on post and Jon, a Level I certified CrossFitter, started us out doing some basic Olympic lifts. I was a little nervous, but not nearly as nervous as I should have been: I failed utterly and completely. Never having touched an Olympic bar before, I had no idea what I was doing. Every time I tried to lift the 45 lb bar, I would lose my balance, the bar would go clattering to the floor, and every guy in the gym would turn to glare at me. It was humiliating.

They could have rolled their eyes at each other. They could have cut the WOD short and sent me home so that I didn't waste any more of their time. I mean, they were looking for a serious workout and I was a female civilian who grossly over-estimated her abilities. But instead of blowing me off, they helped me through it, patiently showing me what to do, and deftly catching the bar when the inevitable would happen and I would fall over backwards like a turtle. They didn't give up on me and so neither did I, even though my ego was crushed.

Every morning I met them at 0-dark-thirty to join in their WODs, and every morning they smoked my ass..... and never made me feel bad about it. They cheered me on, encouraged me when I faltered, and gave me high-fives when I finished. Thank God I was too naive to be intimidated by them when we first met; if I had known better, I wouldn't have even tried to keep up with them, and I would never have gotten hooked on CrossFit. After spending a week with those guys, I went home a changed athlete. My body was sore beyond belief- I couldn't sit, I couldn't walk, and I couldn't straighten my arms all the way. But I now knew how CrossFit was meant to be done, and I've been hooked ever since.

This past week, I got to try on an EOD suit for the first time (ok, it was an Army EOD suit, but it's not like I could tell the difference.) All told, it weighed about 110 lbs, almost as much as me. It was hot, heavy, stiff, and uncomfortable. And I was reminded that it's the business suit of choice that my two friends willingly don for their country all the time. I thought they were great guys when I met them, and now that I've had a chance to see the world from inside that suit, I have even greater respect for them.

Guys... wherever you are, know that the Pain Train continues. Wish you could see me now- that 45 lb bar is nothing! Keep fighting the good fight and I'll keep you both in my thoughts.

"EOD. It's a blast."

Atlas

 

Today was a day of exploration. I followed our athletes around taking a ton of shots from all different angles, looking down on them, looking up at them, running alongside them, etc. I had no clear image in my head of what I wanted so I just took the same shot from three or four different vantage points just to see what would develop.

I thought this one of Mark was nice because it was simple, clean, and fairly symmetrical. It reminded me of Atlas. Since my vantage point was down low, much of Mark's upper body was silhouetted against the sky, making for a nice clean background. I decided to crop out the parking lot and use the filtered black & white but I might have left it in color also... I guess it was just a matter of personal preference. Here's the original for comparison:
 

There were a few other shots that were interesting as well. You can see the rest at Playing with our balls!

Back to basics

 
Our workout today was called "Back to basics" which was appropriate since the shots I took today followed a similar theme, that is, getting back to a basic technique- focus.

A while back I got a suggestion from a reader, bentzurm. He pointed out that many of my photographs were soft and that I might try using a higher ISO if it allowed me to take sharper pictures. Well, today was the first chance I got to give it a shot (no pun intended). I'll admit, I didn't follow bentzurm's suggestions exactly: I was in a rush because I knew Browns' workout wouldn't last long (less than 3 minutes!) and I didn't want to miss any opportunities. So I used the sensitivity mode on my Pentax K10D and set it to 1600 ISO- basically, the highest sensitivity setting for my camera. Unfortunately, I was in such a rush I didn't realize some of the settings were still in place from an earlier shoot I had done over the weekend around a late-night bonfire so many of the shots had very weird exposures to say the least! I was forced to use the flash a few times against my will before I realized what the heck was going on..... Nevertheless, I think the focus was better overall today than in previous WODs, so I'm encouraged.

Like I said, I didn't have much time to set up these shots at all, so the background is cluttered and many of the pictures are spur of the moment snapshots. In an attempt to crop out the most distracting stuff, I cropped it wide and thin, almost like a widescreen perspective. I used the filtered black & white tool (red) to emphasize his tattoos and then brought up the contrast just a tad. Love the facial expression in this one. There's another one with an even better grimace, but the exposure is too dark to make much out of it, I'm afraid. You be the judge- see the rest at Back to Basics.

In memory of 9.11.01

 

The view from my office building today, Sept 11, 2008. Normally it's of the Washington skyline. Today it was of the American flag.

Many of the buildings in and around Rosslyn, VA had draped flags from their structures in memory of 9/11. I worked in my office today thinking about all those people who lost their lives so many years ago, while working in their offices.

We will never forget.

Tinting as an alternative to black & white

 
Ok, everybody familiar with this blog knows my favorite Picasa tool is the Filtered B&W. I don't use a lot of color in my photographs by choice. First, the gym is not a particularly colorful place. Second, the things that ARE colorful (mats, flags, and medicine balls) have already been featured in my blog. Time for something new. Enter Picasa's Tint feature.

I've used the tint feature before, but never with the Color Preservation slider. In the case of the picture above, I wanted to go for a different effect from the other pics I recently posted. I had already posted a black & white shot of Treefrog doing the Warriors Never Die workout. And the other day I posted a full color shot of her. Today, I'm going middle of the road. I decided to keep a little color, but only just enough to add a few accent notes to the photograph. So I slid the color preservation slider about halfway from the starting point until just her athletic top, mats, and dynamax ball had some tint to them, but everything else was bland. Then I selected the white filter to give it a black and white feel.

This effect is often used to give pictures an "old photograph" look, but I thought I'd try to use it to underscore the feeling of old-fashioned sweat and toil. Treefrog is exhausted. She's half-way through a beast of a workout and, if I recall my own experience doing this WOD, this is where the world starts to shrink and lose all detail in your mind. So I thought I'd try to mimic that with the coloring. Not sure I achieved it, but it's a different look than I usually produce, so it's kinda neat.

Here's the original for comparison:
 

Red!

 
This is the second photograph in a set of 3 that I'm featuring from the Warriors Never Die workout. Treefrog was doing knees-to-elbows on the rings and she happened to be wearing a red athletic top which perfectly matched the bright red mats along the wall. The fact that she is in a near fetal position suspended in the air against a red backdrop almost reminds me of a baby in the womb.

Normally I don't like to leave my photographs in color, but in this case, the vivid color IS the photograph. I removed some distracting white PVC pipes using GIMP's clone tool, and tweaked the levels just a tad to give her skin some more color. I have heard that some cameras do not photograph well when the picture is predominantly one color, but in this case, it didn't seem to be a problem.

For more pics from this workout, visit Warriors Never Die

The meaning behind the whiteboard

 
Everybody in the CrossFit community knows about the whiteboard. Once you start your workout, the whiteboard contains your sole purpose for being alive. It dictates your every action. You are a voluntary slave to it, and it is an unforgiving task master.

So a CrossFitter can generally appreciate a picture like this one because we all know what it's like to crank out those reps in the shadow of the whiteboard. But this picture is slightly different: Treefrog knew the warrior this workout was named for. He was a friend of Brown's and he gave his life for his country.

So even though "Warriors Never Die" was one of the hardest workouts I've ever done, and it took the better part of an hour, and I barely had enough strength to lift my camera to take this picture, I'm so glad I did. Because it wasn't until after I snapped the shot and viewed it in the LCD that I realized how much more there was to this photograph than is apparent to the casual observer. This isn't just a picture of an athlete doing a workout in honor of a Hero; this is a picture of an athlete doing a workout in honor a friend.

Steamy photographs

We did Murph the other day- one of my favorite Hero workouts: Run 1 mile, then do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats. Finish with another mile run. I re-opened a few of my callouses from Cindy but thought I'd spare the blogosphere another shot of my ripped-up hands. Instead, I'll just post a picture of one of my workout partners, John. He had just finished Murph, come in from his 2nd mile run, and collapsed on the mats. When I went over to talk to him, I couldn't believe my eyes- he was actually steaming. It had been raining and John was soaking wet. When he laid down on the floor, the water started to evaporate leaving visible tendrils of smoke wisping off of his t-shirt.

It was a phenomenal sight so naturally I grabbed my camera. Never having shot steam before, I had no idea what I was doing. I tried shooting from different angles, ordering John to "sit still..... don't move" (to which he'd reply, "I don't WANT to move.") I tried using short exposures, long exposures, wide aperture, narrow aperture, and every permutation in between. Nothing worked. I could see on my camera's LCD screen that it wasn't showing up.

This was really upsetting me and I hated that I couldn't capture the effect that I could see with my own eyes. Later on I had an idea- why not add some steam artificially? I mean, isn't that what Photoshop and Gimp are for? Besides, it's not like I would be making up a fictious event; it really did happen. I just couldn't capture it with my camera.

So I searched the web and found a few tutorials for creating things like fog, clouds, and smoke, but nothing specific for steam. I tried the smoke suggestions (In GIMP: draw white lines on a new transparent layer and then alternately apply a Gaussian blur with the IWarp effect until satisfied with the result. Finally, adjust the opacity to minimize its presence) Well..... it didn't quite work out as I had hoped. I was never able to get the beautiful laminar flow that I saw floating off of John's shirt, but I make myself feel better by telling myself this is just a first pass. I will keep working on the technique until I feel it captures what I saw yesterday.

Until then, here is the shot of John pseudo-steaming, post-Murph.
 

Reflections

 

A while back I tried to do some creative shots with the mirrors in our gym but was ultimately foiled by 1) the reflected flash from my camera was too distracting, and 2) the mirrors weren't very clean and every smudge was highly visible in the photos. So I gave up on deliberately trying to use the reflection as an artistic device. But every now and again it comes in handy. For instance, the above shot originally looked like this:
 
It was the result of one of those random shots you take just to capture the general hubbub of a workout with no real attempt at framing or composition. After I went through all of the shots, I thought this one might be worth some more work. In the background, Aaron Riley (one of our MMA instructors), was talking to Brown (our CrossFit instructor) and striking a fighting stance. Originally I tried to crop it so both Brown and Aaron were in the shot, but the barbell in the foreground was too distracting as it cut across Brown's legs.

My solution was to use the reflection in the mirror. I realized I could crop out Brown without losing his presence because he was perfectly reflected in the mirror. The result is a much tighter shot of Aaron and a more interesting picture, I think. The bumper plate of the barbell is still visible, but it's not nearly as distracting as in the original.

Finally, I converted to grayscale using filtered black & white, and then added a pale yellow tint just to see how it would look. I liked it so I kept it that way.

Hurts so good

 
A common sight on many CrossFit blogs is a Broken Blisters shot. For some reason, we feel the need to document our pain. We wear these scars proudly, men and women alike. I never would have thought I'd succumb to this odd form of vanity but as soon as I finished Cindy today and saw how shredded my hands were, I said, "Quick! Take a picture!" Yong gets credit for this shot, using my Canon Powershot. I used selective colorization just for the heck of it- my palms were so pink and raw, I wanted that to be the main focus. Then I tweaked the contrast to bring out blisters and cuts a bit more. How sexy is that? I guess I was just elated because I had set a new personal record and it was the first time I had done Cindy as Rx'd. As I type this now, though, the skin is tight and painful (which is why the selective colorization is so sloppy. Sorry 'bout that!) Ah well, sometimes you have to break a few blisters to break a PR.

For more shots of today's workout, visit 080822Cindy

More fun with motion

 
Today's workout was a beast. Burpees and Squats- lots of 'em. I wanted to do some more experimentation with slower shutter speeds so I delayed my own workout so that I could shoot everyone else's. This was probably one of the best ones I took. After MUCH trial and error (I started with my aperture too large and my shutter speed too fast) I finally started getting some decent shots. I like this one because it has a stationary subject as well as moving ones. John (in black) was about half-way through his workout when he took a few seconds to regroup. Ben and Raman (the blurs) were forging ahead in the background. To get the shot I used a shutter speed of 1/8 sec which is longer than I'm comfortable with and very difficult to hold steady. But I took advantage of John's stationary pose and focused on him and it worked out.

My one regret is that the ISO is so high (800), leading to more noise than I care for. By this time I had stopped down the aperture to f/11 so that I had a generous depth of field in which to work. This results in less light getting to the pixels, though, causing the camera to compensate by using a faster ISO. If I had used a wider aperture to let in more light, my pictures might have gotten more blurry due to the narrower focal range. It's all about trade-offs; my problem is, I don't know how many more feet each f-stop buys me in terms of depth of field so I can't estimate on the fly what my setting should be. This is why I experiment.

Here's another example of what happens when you experiment:
 
I honestly don't know how I got this shot, but it's kinda neat. I know I was playing with panning and the second curtain (also called trailing curtain) flash mode which synchronizes the flash with the end of an exposure. This gives a sharp crisp impression of the subject rather than an amorphous smear across the image. As you can see (and against all possible odds), Ben's face is in focus while everything else around him has a weird ethereal smeared look to it. What I think happened was this: instead of just snapping the picture and letting the trailing curtain flash do it's thing, I picked a point (his face) and panned the camera while he did his burpee to keep it stationary. This was a little tricky as you have to follow the person for a few reps and get a sense of their rate. (pssst- you get better shots toward the end of a workout because people are 1)slower, and 2)more expressive. A nice sheen of sweat helps to round out the image as well.) Anyway, somehow this shot came out but I'm not sure I could do it again. I also liked the color so I kept it as is.

For more of my experimental shots, check out Burpees Up, Squats Down.

Flirting with slower shutter speeds

 
One of the things I've been working on for a while is motion blur. It has such an aesthetic effect when done correctly, but it's so challenging to do well. If your shutter speed is too slow, you risk having everything blurred; if your shutter speed is too fast, you may have a nice sharp picture, but no sense of motion. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes you get bizarre shots like this one where athletes seem eerily suspended in space:
 
So far I've found that the most important thing in getting a decent motion blur shot (assuming the exposure is ok) is keeping your main focal point in focus. There are a couple of ways to achieve this, including panning or using a fancy mode on your camera called second curtain flash mode which will "freeze" the subject in space while preserving a trail of motion blur behind it.

In the picture of the guys doing squats, I chose a much less sophisticated option: timing. I simply waited until my subject was momentarily stationary to take the shot. Prior to this, I focused on Yong's face (in black) while he was standing still. Once they started doing squats, I timed my shot so that it clicked just as he reached the top of his extension. I used a 1/15 sec shutter speed to give a slight blur to everything that wasn't stationary; in hindsight, I probably could have gone to 1/30 sec to get some more detail in the other squatters. But the result is that his face is (relatively) in focus while everything else has a slight blur to it.

How to decide what shutter speed to use? I'm sure there are probably some rules of thumb but I don't know what they are. I just use trial and error. The challenge is that different movements have different rates of speed so one exercise (like squats) may use a relatively slow speed while running might need a faster shutter speed. Since I don't have an innate ability to know what blend of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed will result in the best image, I basically try them all. It results in a lot of throw-away shots, but every now and then I get a little closer and closer to the effect I'm seeking. More on this later as I continue to experiment.

Never Accept Defeat: Lee Bae-young

 
 
 
 
 
 
This is Lee Bae-young, an Olympic weight lifter from Korea, and my new personal hero.

Lee Bae-young was in second place after the Snatch competition but I watched him lose all hope of a medal a few days ago with this final attempt at lifting 186kg during the Clean & Jerk. He tore a calf muscle on his first attempt (at 184kg) and then increased the weight to 186kg on the second attempt to get a little more time to recover. He failed on the second attempt as well. By the third attempt, everybody in the crowd was hoping he'd somehow do the impossible. I was too. He hobbled out on a tender ankle, committed himself to the lift, and then hoisted it into the air. He lost control of the weight right after the squat and gravity took over. Even as the barbell rolled across the floor, he refused to let go, his body dragging behind it.

That image of him clinging to the bar as it (and any chance of a medal) rolled away from him is etched on my brain. I've been haunted by these images ever since. It's not so much that he failed; it's how he refused to let go, even as he took it to his knees, even as it dragged him across the floor. When faced with the impossible, he still committed himself to it 100% and never let go, even when the impossible became the inevitable.

I wish I had the heart that Lee Bae-young showed the world on this day. I wish I attacked my challenges with the same fighting spirit Lee Bae-young did, even in the face of the impossible. Because all of us fail at some time or another, but few of us meet defeat the same way Lee Bae-young did: fighting and clawing for that dream the whole way down.