CDMMA 9...let's try this again.

I'm not exactly sure why the first one was deleted, but for whatever reason my last blog on this was deleted.

I am back from photographing CDMMA9.   He just kept moving forward. Here is a link CLICK HERE FOR THE GALLERY to the gallery for your enjoyment. The photographs are for sale on the website, and if you have any questions, please get in contact with me. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

That's Jimmy. He was the ref for the night. Did a great job too keeping the fighters safe

This is a fighter from the undercard, and let me tell you...yeah, he took it all and kept coming.

Slick sub

This is Drew, announcing as usual.

 

I swear that website is a brewin!

I know it's been awhile since I've posted.  It's not for a lack of shooting though (photo heavy episode of the blog :P).  I wanted to get on here and post a handful of the recent photographs for you to enjoy.  I've gotten the last of the details I need to gather for the new website together, and will be sending them in to the designer soon.  Just so you know, because I don't want it to seem like it is the designer, this hold up is 100% me.

Here's a handful of the recent photographs (from the last post to now)

Summer weddings and happenings

The summer season is almost over, and it is bringing way to fall.  How I love the beautiful colors of fall, but I dislike the winter coming.  It seems like only yesterday that we had snow in our driveway.

In July, I was so lucky as to photograph the wedding of a close friend, and one that I consider family, Pat Johnston and his (now) wife Jeannette.

I have known Patrick for several years, as he has been my judo coach for several of them, and a friend for almost all that I've known him.  I'm not going to lie, I don't think he particularly liked me when we first met, however we grew to become friends.  He and the rest of the Dignans really took me under their wing and helped me grow as a person, and I owe a lot of my thanks in life to them.  It will almost be 1 year (August 21st) that I had the pleasure of Patrick Johnston, and Jim and Jason Dignan promoting me to my black belt in judo.

With all of that said, I consider myself lucky to be the photographer for his wedding.

I had a fantastic time photographing Patrick and Jeannette's wedding, and I wish them a lifetime of happiness and love.  Here's just a few quick photographs from the day.

I will get back to regular posting here before long.  I've still been photographing events and everything, but with my summer classes, my "blog" time has been cut back (I still have to have time to edit photographs and take them!  If I'm writing about all of them, I won't be able to take all of them! lol).

I hope you can enjoy these photographs, and I hope you too can wish my family by proxy, Pat and Jeannette a wonderful future.

Summit Booster

This year brought the second annual Penn Cambria Golf Booster.  It's a really great outing where teams compete and raise money for the golf team (I'm not sure if that is the correct wording). 

I have been a tee sponsor for each year, and also the photographer for the event as well.  I enjoy helping out a good cause, and I think helping the kids get their golf equipment/shirts and things like that is a good cause.  While I make jokes about golf sometimes, I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone that can accurately nail a ball and send it to where they are aiming.  There are so many factors in the accuracy of a shot, that it really is a true feat to be a good golfer.

Here is the gallery for the photographs of the day,
Cresson Summit Booster

This year, I am making the photographs available in a different way than I did last year.  Last year, I just handed out 4x6's, and people could order whatever they wanted.  Rather than hand out the photographs, this is what I'm doing this year.  The photographs are free to download for personal use.  Personal use means anything that isn't news or money earning (e.g., you cannot sell the photographs). 

I am also making the same photographs available for sale.  Why buy a photograph when you can download it for free?  Well that answer is simple, from every sale that is as a result of the Cresson Summit Golf Booster that took place on July 1st 2013 (I am also going to set up a link to the previous year's gallery and do the same thing), I will make a donation of 25% of the profits of the sale to the Penn Cambria Booster.

I also lowered the print prices, lower than my standard rates, that way ordering a few prints doesn't cost the friends/families as much, and I'll still be making a donation.

For example, if there is $100 in profits that arise from sales, $25 will be donated to the booster.  Also, for anyone that orders, I will make available proof/confirmation that indeed a donation was made.  If no sales are made, the amount will be $0.00 (25 percent of nothing is nothing).  So there you have it, you can make a purchase with a percentage going towards the Penn Cambria golfers, or you can download for free.  I will include instructions on how to download the photographs,

To download any of your photographs,

1: Go to www.RobLynn.smugmug.com

2: On this page there will be a tab for "Events."  Please click on the "Events" tab.

3: This will open into a window with a listing for the Cresson Golf Booster.  Please click this tab.

4: Once you find the photograph that you would like to download, select the size you would like to download it as (the size option will appear as your mouse is over the selected photograph).

5: Right-click with your mouse and click "save as."  You can then select where on your computer you would like to save the photograph.

There is no charge for a digital download of the photograph.  (though you can buy a digital download and a donation will be made as detailed above).

Getting the ball off of the club is, in my opinion, harder than a ball off of a bat.

A young man in the putting contest reacts as his ball nearly goes in.
 

All in all, it was a great day.  The rain held out for most of the day.  I am looking forward to next year.

A nice surprise.

Firstly, I am not the bragging type and no matter how I try to word this post or the title, it feels as though I am bragging.  I definitely am not doing so and I hope you will see that I am just proud of a recent accomplishment.

I belong to a photo club and they hold a yearly print competition.  I enter photographs into all of the categories but the ones I like the most are still life and portraits, with portraits being my favorite.

The two photographs that took first and second place in the people portion of the competition are here;

The Guitarist (A self portrait).

Laura (unless I'm a real wizard, not a self portrait :P )

While it is not the first time that I have received either good comments, awards, or a pleased client out of a photograph, it was my first time entering a self portrait into a competition.  A lot of people think that photographers aren't nervous on the other side of a camera, but I definitely am.  So when I see a client that is nervous of having their photograph taken, I have so walked a mile in those shoes.

The only reason I put a photograph of myself into the competition was because I needed another print to go to the maximum of 5 between all of the categories.  At the end of the year, scores are tabulated, and while I think it is silly, end of the year ratings are based upon the total of all of your scores.  So conceivably, you could not place 1st, 2nd or even 3rd in any of the categories, but still end up with the highest total of the year.  While this scenario is highly unlikely both based upon the talent of the other photographers in the competition, and also the math is against it, it doesn't rule it out.  For that reason alone, you're better off putting in a photograph that you think will score even 5 or 10 points, rather than not put one in.

That's exactly why I tossed a photo of yours truly into the mix.  I honestly didn't think it was going to do well, and when I got the news, I was so excited to tell the model that we placed, because she also suggested that I submit it.

Anyway, I will have photographs from my most recent trip to Florida here shortly, and also photographs from the golf booster here shortly.

Until then, take care!

Carrie Furnace

Hello all, I know it's been a month and for that I apologize.  I've been busy busy busy!  This summer has been rough, as I am currently pursuing my degree in business management.  I've been deep into the books and working to complete this as fast as I can.

Every blog post I write on this feels like it will probably be the last one as my new site will be launching any time.  I've just got to get some time that I can meet up with the designers and finalize some things.  That whole time thing...if only there were some extra hours in a day.

Just recently I went on a photo outing and we went to the Carrie Furnace.  The Carrie Furnace is an abandoned mill that has been in various stages of disrepair since prior to WWII (I believe).  I wanted to work on photos that were a bit different than the group and I really wanted to come back with some different products.  Tony Sweet's words "Visual irony" are stuck in my head.

My son turned 2.

I am a lucky man to have my wife and son share a birthday.  My son, Erik, just turned two.  Here are a few pictures from his little party that we had at the inlaws.  My wife had an awesome cake made by one of her friends, for Erik.  I'm told it's pretty common for young boys to enjoy choo choo trains.  As you can see from his toy, cake, shirt, hat and if you could see, his shoes...he loves "Tommy".

This is the cake that one of my wife's friends made.

Erik admiring his cake, and getting ready to dig in.

Looking for the approval to dig in!

When he wants to, he uses silverware like a pro!

After party play down!

Even if all I ever photographed for the rest of my career, was my family, I would be happy.  Those moments of joy that I get to capture, and will be able to relive, not only in memory but in picture as well....are all worth it.



 

VFL Virginia 3_23_13

I keep kicking myself in the rear end after I photograph a show, and drive home...only to realize I didn't pick up a program.  A program is how I know who to find, and let them know that I shot photos of them.

The show was VFL 39, Revolution of Combat.  A great night of fights in Virginia.  I think I'm back in Virginia in April.

I met a couple cool people there too.  This official that I photographed, my friend mistakenly thought was a fighter.  Couldn't blame my friend though, it was his first show that he was at, and this dude drove up in his vehicle, branded with his kick boxing school, and to boot, the guy doesn't exactly look like a slouch either. 
Met another photographer, and a photo/videographer too.  The photographer, I didn't get to chat much with. T he photo/videographer I did get to speak with.  He is a brown belt in Judo, and he and I spoke at length about Judo and equipment.  Good night of action and communication.

Sorry this is kind of rushed, I've got a pile of paperwork to take care of.  I just wanted to get these photographs up for you to check out, and the link for the fighters/families to purchase if they want them.

Here's a couple quick pictures from the night, and the link for the full gallery to purchase photographs.  Please do not download, crop or edit without permission.  Thank you.

 

Here's the link to the full gallery, VFL Revolution of Combat

CDMMA8

 

Full gallery available for purchase here.....CLICK HERE

 

On March 2nd 2013 Complete Devastation MMA had its 8th show at the Blair County Convention Center.  This is the last show with the (now) previous owner, Jason Davis.  Davis has sold the company to pursue other business interests.  Since Jason is a friend of mine, it was a little bittersweet seeing him sell the promotion.  He always took great care of the fighters and workers.  It will prove interesting working with the new owner *(whom I met and he seems incredibly nice and wonderful for the job), at the same time though, it is nice that Jason is doing something else that he enjoys.  Best wishes to him.

 

The night of fights was a good night of action.  The matchmaker, Ryan Glunt, did a great job of putting the fights together.  There was a bunch of my training partner/teammates on the card.  I use the term loosely, because I don't train day in and day out like they do.  I've got more of a traditional martial-arts background (I could write an entry on this) but I do go in there and get on the mats from time to time.  This is the same fight team/school where I received my black belt in Judo.  The group is like a family and the fighters, even if I don't see them a lot, are like an extended family.  There were five guys from the school on the card.  All of them, even if they lost, had good performances.  

During the night there was one controversy.  The referee stopped a match between Jason Royer and Doug Haupt, and the crowd wasn't pleased.  What happened was Royer took Haupt to the ground, and Haupt went to lock up Royer's neck.   When they hit the mat, Royer's head spiked the canvas.  The referee said that he asked Royer to give him a thumbs up if he was okay.  The referee said after the third time of asking, he stopped the fight.  Bill, the ref, told me that he was concerned when Royer didn't respond after Royer had just spiked his head off of the canvas.  He didn't want to find out Royer had broken his neck AND was being choked at the same time.  Royer was visibly upset, as he popped right up and protested the stoppage and was no worse for wear.  I'm not exactly sure if they can restart a fight or not, or what procedure they could even use.  I'm sure it sucks for Royer, because I've seen him in the gym putting the hours in, and I know that he trained hard to fight.  The referee though, has to look out for the fighters and I assume they have to assume the worst has happened in a situation like that.  The fact the Royer isn't hurt and can live to fight another day is something that I feel is great and I hope that he makes his appearance again soon...though I feel bad for the person who fights.

I think that is enough of me rambling on and on.  So here are the photographs.  As usual, please ask permission before posting online at all.  This means fight blogs/news/advertising et cetera.

 

(Read on for a secondary rant).

UFC photographer, Josh Hedges, recently wrote a piece about the lighting in the events he shoots.  He said that the UFC is consistent venue to venue and country to country with his settings varying 1/3 stop or so at most.  He also said that his settings were f/2.8, ISO3200, 1/2000 of a setting with a custom white balance of 3400.

I would honestly shoot a show for 1/2 of what I charge to get those settings at a show.  The show I shot on the 2nd was f/2.8, ISO3200-25600, 1/500 with an "I give up" custom white balance.  His lighting is even and consistent.  The lighting I was working is, is varied and inconsistent.  I'm used to this, after shooting a pile of shows...it just makes me so jealous.  The files would look INFINITELY cleaner at ISO 3200 than at 25600, and the shutter speeds of 1/2000?  Wow...just wow.  I am pleased when I can get 1/640....If I was able to get 1/2000?!?!?!?!  I think I would do a back flip.  The other bonus about that even light with that much quantity is that the auto focus of the camera works even better.  In the dungeons I have shot in, the auto focus isn't always spot on...even on the most recent camera bodies from either major manufacturer (I shoot Canon).  When there is more light, there is more for the camera to work with.  *sigh* a guy can dream, right?