Tito and Me

 

One of the perks of shooting the UWC events for Bloodyelbow.com!

That's me with Tito Ortiz. Normally I don't like to put myself in my own shots, and in the past I have ignored the celebrity guests as I try to maintain some semblance of professionalism *snicker*, but hey.... it's Tito Ortiz! The only way I could be more excited is if it had been Forrest Griffin.

Check out my latest shots to be featured exclusively on www.bloodyelbow.com!!

*Life is sooooo good.*

My UWC Pics on BloodyElbow.com!

EDITED to add: I updated the links below as they were mobile versions that my blackberry inserted. Sorry for the glitch!
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Sorry for the delay in posting. Those of you who know me know this was a trying week for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a severely limited internet connection. Nevertheless, I am happy to log on briefly tonight (thank you Blackberry!!) to include the following link.

Yep, that's one of my shots featured on BloodyElbow.com! Luke Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, was nice enough to let me cover the event for his website. It was a great experience. I had a ROCKIN seat, right up against the cage and within earshot of Luke calling the event for the UWC.

The fights were fantastic, especially the bout between John "The Magician" Dodson and Jose "The Pistol" Villarisco. Those guys are a photographer's dream come true with all their flying kicks and acrobatics. Amazing!

The matchup between LeVon Maynard and Kyle Baker was also pretty exciting for me. It was something I'd been waiting for for a long time as I'm a fan of both fighters. I was torn who to root for, but enjoyed it immensely even though I knew one was gonna go down.

Finally, the fight between Iman Achhal and Felice Herrig was a new one for me. I'd never seen a girl MMA matchup before and wondered if I would enjoy it as much as the men. The answer is yes. It was definitely different but still enjoyable.

On a whole, it was a great night with great fights and good photo ops. I also got to rub elbows with my photog friend and (dare I say?) unofficial mentor, Keith Mills, and schmooz a bit with friends and FighterLink owners John and Jen Tackett. Thanks guys, for looking out for me at this event! I'm still really new to this world so I can use all the Big Brothering I can get! ;)

Pics taken for BloodyElbow.com can also be found here.

Fingers Crossed........

Folks, it's that time again. This Saturday night I will be sitting cageside shooting the UWC Man "O" War event at George Mason University's Patriot Center. I'm especially excited about this event because, if all goes well, my pictures will be featured on another website with a pretty wide MMA audience. I'm a little superstitious so I'm not going to say too much more until after the event. The reality is that a lot of things could go wrong and I obsess about every single one of them. For instance, I may not get a good seat- it's entirely up to the promotions staff. If I don't get a good seat, then all I will get are pictures of a chain link fence and a blur of pink beyond it. So until I know my shots are golden, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed, hope everything works in my favor, and try not to jinx myself by giving too much away.

At any rate, check back on Sunday to see how things went, and wish me luck! Oh! And if you want to watch the event yourself, Sherdog.com will be streaming it live. Here's the link. It's free, and you might even see me.... I'll be the chick wearing the stupid grin and taking pictures.

Welcome home

 

Today was our first day back at our old box and I went straight back to my exploratory photography, lying on the mats, shooting up, down, across, and toying with the exposure settings. It felt good to be back!

Halfway through I noticed a disturbing trend: I tend to favor full-body shots that take up about 3/4 of the frame and lack facial details. Once in a while is ok, but dozens of the same type of shot can get boring. So for this one I got up as close as possible without shoving the lens in Treefrog's face (sorry Treefrog- you were a good sport!) which sort of exaggerated the size of the near olympic plate. I cropped it even closer in picasa so that the plate filled almost half of the frame.

I'm going to try and shoot tighter shots from now on. I haven't used my 50mm lens in a while so maybe it's time to dust that bad boy off again now that we're back in the old gym. Actually, I will be using my 50mm very shortly for another purpose this weekend. I'll give a few more details in a day or two, but if all goes well this weekend let's just say this isn't the only website where you'll be seeing my shots....

The Pointe of CrossFit

 
Betcha don't see this everyday!

One of our athletes studies ballet when she's not CrossFitting. During warmup the other day, I noticed her bag sitting against the wall with one of her pointe shoes tumbling out. It was such a juxtaposition with the surroundings I had to take a shot. I grabbed a kettlebell and a jump rope that were in my path and placed them next to the bag, et voila! Pointe Shoe and Kettlebell still-life!

I submitted it to the CrossFit main site a few days ago but they didn't post it (I'm not upset; it might be a little artsy fartsy for their taste). But I didn't want to sit on it any longer. I'm pretty excited by it and I want to share it with everyone.

Basically, I adjusted the levels in GIMP to build up a little contrast between the pink slipper and the pinkish dance bag, desaturated it, and then selectively re-colored the shoe and kettlebell.

CrossFit Level I Cert - VA Beach

 

Just got back from Virginia Beach where I attended a Level I CrossFit certification course. It was.... humbling. I'm in awe of our instructors and their level of knowledge and fitness. They've given me something real and tangible to shoot for from here on out and I'm grateful for that. The course was made up of both lecture material and break out sessions, with plenty of time to practice the concepts we had just learned in the classroom. I got to try out equipment I had never seen before, and even started to develop the beginnings of a butterfly pull-up! Holy smokes, didn't see that one coming! Yes, I'm sore. Very very sore. And I did see spots after one of the workouts. But here's the thing- most of the stuff we did was all body-weight and PVC-pipe intensive. Very little time was spent carrying loads. And yet they still smoked us completely.

My one regret was that I didn't bring my DSLR. I felt naked the whole weekend without it. All I had on me was my little point and shoot, which I used to capture a bunch of images from the instructors' WOD on the second day. This is one of our instructors, Pat S., attacking a set of 15 push-jerks. Check out those shins! Reminds me of the day a guest athlete came to town and drew blood as well. You can't see it here, but Pat bears an uncanny resemblance to Ben Stiller (think Tropic Thunder, not Zoolander.)

Anyway, thank you everyone, instructors and fellow students alike for an amazing weekend! It was a wonderful learning experience and I can't wait to put all I've learned into practice. Now if only I could straighten my legs.......

The Struggle

 

This is Dave Branch battling Robbie Houston. To me, this is what I love most about MMA: the strain, the amazing physical struggle between two men trying to best one another. It's so basic and so visceral- you can practically see the blood pumping through their veins.

When people ask me why I enjoy watching MMA, I always stammer. I can't find the words that will cast it in the light it deserves. Instead, I shrug, shake my head, grin shyly, and admit I don't know the answer to that. But this picture sums it up. Whatever words are failing me, they're visible in this photograph. Why do I enjoy watching MMA? Because of moments like this.

Exhaustion

 

Last month I posted a picture of an unidentified tattooed fighter. I finally figured out who he is. His name is Daniel Sarafian and he defeated his opponent, Lamont Lister, by arm bar in the 3rd round. This is the two of them in the second round. I have a couple of shots of them in this position, one with Sarafian's arm wrapped tightly around Lister's neck. With his tattoos, his arm looks exactly like a boa constrictor suffocating its prey. But you can't see Lister's face in those, and one of the things I like about this shot is how you can see his face. Well, partially. Lister is breathing out of his mouth and he's exhausted. But that's what draws you in and that's why I chose to post this picture.

Go Big Red!

 
When I took this picture of John Cholish, I didn't realize he used to wrestle for Cornell, my alma mater. It wasn't until tonight when I read his bio that I discovered he was a fellow Cornellian (hence my nod to Big Red). Funny that the two of us should find ourselves on opposite sides of the cage here in DC- him fighting and me shooting....

Apparently Cholish was quite a good wrestler and now he fights out of New York City with Team Renzo Gracie. In this bout, Cholish defeated Chris Connor from MMA Institute (on the bottom) by unanimous decision.

I think the thing that strikes me about this photo is how every muscle in Cholish is contracting- every single one. There is not one fiber that is resting; he is one giant spring-loaded weapon in the act of firing. You can even see the strain in his toes. Extraordinary.

I chose a square format to reduce distraction. Normally I crop to a 4x6 ratio but there was a distracting lady whose white forehead and eyes peeping over the mats stood out too much against the black backdrop. She kept drawing the eye away from Cholish, who I meant to be the focus. She had to go, so I tightened up the crop using a 1:1 and adjusted the frame to the Rule of Thirds. I also sharpened it and brought up the contrast a tad just to darken the chain links in the foreground.

Never too old

 
This is Buck "The Coach" Grant. After 7 years of retirement, he's back on the mats showing his students at Hybrid Academy of Martial Arts how it's done. He's also a CrossFit athlete (thanks Brown!). Not hard to imagine that; this was him last month during the Battle at the Nation's Capital. Did I mention he's 32 years old? (As a 33-year old who refuses to accept the idea that age=deterioration, I love it when the older guy wins.)

I like this picture for several reasons. First, I like the dichotomy between the bodies of the victor, tall and proud, and the loser, bloodied and on his knees. This was a messy fight, with Grant cutting Dixon early in the first round and the ref stopping the fight when Dixon was no longer able to defend himself. That brings me to the second reason why this photo is interesting to me- the ref was still signaling a call to the fight long after Grant walked away from his opponent. He stayed there waving his hands forever, as if driving home the message that there was no question this fight was over. I'm glad he did because it allowed me time to take a frontal shot of Grant, arms raised in victory, while the ref was still gesturing over a stunned Dixon. Finally, I'm drawn in by the facial expression of Dixon. He's staring down at the blood on his hand as if in disbelief. (He'll have to watch the video of his fight a couple of times before he knows what happened and how he came to be in that position.) Shortly after this picture was taken, he and Grant hugged in the center of the cage before Grant's arm was raised.

In other news....
I had to take some time away from the 'blog over the holidays so that I could focus my photography on Photo calendars, family get-togethers, and kids on Christmas morning. Apologies for the hiatus. I hope to feature several more shots from the Battle at the Nation's Capital over the next few weeks, interspersed with the CrossFit pics, of course. Then, in February, get ready for UWC Man O' War.....