Wednesday, July 14, 2010

VFL MMA Mason Dixon Three

It's been a little longer than I would like to post, and I apologize. We were having some connectivity issues with our ISP. I don't know if Atlantic Broadband had some line maintenance or not, but it kept me from posting.

I was in attendance at VFL's MMA/Boxing promotion in Chambersburg, PA on July 9th. The evening was a mixed night of boxing and MMA. It was a unique night, because the place it was held could be likened to a banquet hall. Obviously these venues are selected because of their affordability to the promoter and it gives an arena for the amateur talent (the full card was amateur MMA and 2 boxing bouts) to showcase their skills. Let's face it, you don't start out fighting at the Pearl at the Palms.

The top of the cage was about 16 inches from the ceiling, so the promoter couldn't use his ring lights. For the photographers who follow this for technical information the scenes were metering like ISO 6400 f/2.8 1/125. We all know this isn't enough to capture action. I had to do something that I don't enjoy doing which is use flash during a fighting event. The plus side was it was a drop ceiling and I could bounce a low powered flash as to not distract the fighters. It however changes things. You're no longer going to shoot at 10 FPS (frames per second) since you'll get maybe 2-4 pops of the flash before the capacitors are drained enough for it to need to recycle. You also don't want to flash 10 shots then 10 more and 10 more really fast, because the flash bulbs can burn up. Canon's flat rate to work on any flash? $180. So you don't want to burn something up if you do not need to.

The other issue is mixing color temperatures. It gives some of the photographs an unnatural coloring. When you've got 2-3 color temps bouncing around before you add your flash, there's not too much you can do. You "sort" of correct it so that the flesh looks "reasonable" and you keep the other stuff from looking "too" odd.

I'll be photographing another VFL MMA event on the 31st of July. The promoter treats me well, and keeps having me photograph his shows. I can't see that relationship changing anytime soon.

Just a personal opinion though, I think that if you do boxing and MMA on the same card you should start out with the boxing then work into the MMA fights. See folks like the fast paced intensity of MMA. They also like to watch boxing when people are going nuts swinging. However, if you just watched a high intensity MMA fight, then watch a heavy or even middle weight boxing match...it's like you took your car from 100 to 60. I appreciate and enjoy boxing. However some fans aren't going to stick around for it or will subtract from the other folks experience there by booing every 4 seconds of inactivity.

I've got other session photographs to post, but I figured I'd show one of the submissions, a nice boxing shot, and the ring-girls with the title belts, and with yours truly.

Here's the link to the full gallery. Remember, all of my photographs are protected by copyright law. Do not download them illegally. Contact me for purchasing information.

http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/VFL-MMA-Mason-Dixon-Showdown-3/12877142_54N8L#929961843_Mvkws




I will get back on posting schedule, and not keep the readers waiting.

Rob





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