AON WRESTLING!

So May 2nd I photographed more AON wrestling. This was just the day after photograping the IWFC event at the War Memorial. (Cambria County War Memorial).

The game plan was to go up to any plain wall and just get a few grabs of the wrestlers, so Jason could keep them in stock. In the rooms there was this chair rail, only it was about 4ft off of the ground, so there was really no way to use the walls in the place without some ridiculous looking rail in it. So we chose to use this overhead door, in a hallway where we had not enough room to photograph the people. People were 3 ft from the door, and I was 3 ft from them...simply not good enough.

I was getting some goofy reflection, and a shadow that wasn't casting out of the way as much as I would have liked (I couldn't move the light any further to the side...no choice but to make it work). There was crap in the alcove where the people were too and light was bouncing around like crazy.

I made the hotspot work for me (believe it or not the light wasn't aimed at where the hot spot was shoting) as it looks almost like a spot light lighting up our stars. Now, I like to use more than one light on a shoot...and a few reflectors. No choice here. Just one light from a big light source bouncing around like crazy. I wanted a HARD light too, and a broad source close to our subject makes that difficult to get. See you try and keep the subject in the same f/stop range of light. Inverse square law tells us that as the distance doubles, the light is 1/4 as strong. This just means that if we place someone RIGHT on top of the light, you can almost guarantee a deep shadow on one side of the body and a bright highlight on the other.

The other thing is, in this type of portraiture, you're not looking for a perfect catchlight in the eyes. You're not looking for the perfect pose. These guys were told, go up there, be yourself. 3 quick snaps, next. Seriously, less than 20 seconds a person.

Well, I made that over head door and the hotspot work for me. I think it's "neat" looking. Trust me, I wanted to clean up the poses, I wanted to add more lights and do everything that I would do during a portrait session, but let's face it...there wasn't enough time, or enough room.

Did anyone ever play the Max Payne games? In 2, there's a villain character with a baseball bat in those comic books that are laying around. Doesn't the one wrestler who wanted a "mug shot" look like him?

http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Entertainment

Check there for the full gallery!