CDMMA8

 

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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?