The travels of Rob Lynn

Poly-what-tycal?

2011-12-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

What's polyhydrical? Well, I'm not sure the "technical" definition, but I was always told that these "polyhydrical" dice were made out of "high impact" plastic and would withstand a "lifetime" of role-playing.

What's role-playing? Put simply, it's the playing of a role. Either of fact or fiction, fantasty or reality. In theory ANY game we play is "role-playing". Halo? You're playing whoever that goof in the space suit is. Call of Duty? You're that dude who is running around and gunning...wait, that's me. You're the guy that's camping! (just messing, I don't care).

The genus of "role-playing" is typically geared towards the game genre where you take control of an individual or individuals and you act out various plans/plots/quests/missions in succession until you find the main villain, or defeat the main "boss" or solve whatever problem the world has fell into.

Some game titles that are "officially" RPGs (role-playing games) are Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII...I'll stop at VII because I don't think one is worth a damn past VII, Dragon Warrior (these were NES and SNES games, and really the last systems that they were worth a crap). Some more "modern" ones would be Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls (any variant), Mass Effect.

The idea amongst "nerds" for the longest time was that "turn based" was the requirement for an RPG. Based upon that, there's not been an RPG out for just about ever, unless you count the (to me at least) terrible, repetative, "tactics" style games. No, I don't want to move around 1-2 blocks and play the same stage 10,000 times and go into dungeons 100 levels deep that I cannot save in between and I can't leave once I start. I've got other things to do. If I was 15 again, maybe, but something runs in my mind that I had other things to do.

Now, there's other RPG's. Book and paper...ones that you play at a table top with your friends/family. Dungeons and Dragons is by and large the most popular. While I don't own any books any longer, I used to enjoy this when I was in high school. That was "2nd edition". I stopped at the book store and looked at some of the books, viewing what they've done to the game...and I don't like it. Not that I'd have time to play anymore anyway.

Long story short, the only things needed to "play" Dungeons and Dragons (used to be, as now you've got to get a few more things, like mini's, special grid/tile maps blah blah blah) were a note pad, a pencil, an eraser, a few friends and these dice. These dice had different amounts of sides, and were geometric shapes. 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20. Funny how we could figure out "any" problem with just a few rolls of the dice.

Oh, to hit that creature, you need a 14. Do you think that maybe Lyoto Machida (UFC fighter) in his recent fight against Jon Jones would've liked it that simple?

Oh, to pick that guy's pocket and get the key to the cell, you need an 88 or less on 2 10 sided dice. (one would be 10's column and one would be the 1's space).

Well, I'm not much of a role-player anymore, but I've got loads of these dice. I was adding photos to my stock collection and figured I could share these with you. If you've got more than 5 minutes of role playing experience, I'm sure you'll know what these are. Oh, to be a kid again and only have to worry about decisions like "what color dice to buy".

I'll have something more productive up once I'm done beating this bronchial pneumonia thing.

More low light

2011-12-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

Being in control of the light is something that a photographer will be happy about. However, it is seldom the case.

Such is evidenced when I went to see my friend's band perform at a local bar. Recovering from a "please let me die" sinus infection, I ventured out for an hour to see his band. They have a very unique style...they are a karaoke band. Yep, you read that right. They play the music, you sing the songs. It's quite entertaining, and the fans love the interaction.

ISO 6400, f/2.8 1/10-1/30 depending on where the band member was...on top of that, I'm carrying a telephoto lens. In theory, one of the worst ideas. The first photo is just as is, no additional light.

Being that I'm not afraid of low light assignments, and as long as there is enough light for my cameras to aquire focus, I'll shoot in it. So here, I was able to lower my ISO 2 full stops, and blend ambient lighting with my light. What's cool about it is, I'm able to freeze the "majority" of the photo, but give the impression of motion.

Or I can work off of just my expsoure, and get a photo that appears at much lower ISO than it was actually shot at.

I'm not going to get into the technical, "how" or "why" I did what I did. No need to educate everyone on my thought processes.

Just a few photos for you guys to enjoy.

Part 2 of Crappy prints vs my prints

2011-12-11T19:43:00.001-08:00

So, I just made a post about crappy prints against my prints. What I did was scanned a photo that my wife had printed at Walgreens. Then I scanned the same photo (albeit different sized) and printed it out...The results were night and day different. Even scanning them on my scanner that has a horrible color cast, it still was clear which photo was better.

Well, fast forward to now. My wife is putting a photo of our family in a frame. I stop her (it's one of the ones she got from Walgreens) and I tell her, that I'll print one up. Sure enough, my looks 10,000x better.

Here's the remarkable thing though...I used the exact same file that I provided her to get them printed...the same, exact file. Not one difference. No change in white balance. No change in exposure. No change in anything.So, I can assure you that the photo I posted yesterday, and the photo posted today were shot at the same exact parameters.

The only difference was, yesterday's was shot with a 70-200 2.8ISMK2, whereas today's was shot with a 24-70 2.8. The camera was the same. The photos were taken with the same lights, same backgrounds, same settings (with focal length being the ONLY exception). Both photos were shot on Dec 8th, and both were done within minutes of each other.I have to rant about this...because while the one of just my son was underexposed when printed by walgreens, but spot on when done by me...this photo of my wife, my son and I was 2 stops or more underexposed, in comparison to one of my photos...THAT HAVE THE SAME SETTINGS.So what I'm trying to say is, the same exact digital file, yielded two completely different results.The results speak for themselves.

I'm not trying to sound rude, or anything, but this is exactly why it pays to have your prints done by the photographer. It pays to have them work with a custom lab, or even their own private lab. The results are truly night and day. The above photo, is a salable photo of a family. The bottom photo, though shot exactly the same, is a pile of crap and the person at the photo lab ought to be ashamed of themselves for even handing this order back to my wife.

Crappy prints versus my prints.

2011-12-09T19:30:00.001-08:00

This post is going to be more of me complaining, but in a good way, than anything.I hear this all of the time. "How much for a disc?".I'm not a fan of the turn and burn end of photography. I sell a brand. That brand is Rob Lynn. What that means to my customers is this,I will give you the best work I can deliver to you, and give you the best value for your dollar. I don't sell products I don't believe in. I don't force a sale on a customer. I stand behind my products, and I won't turn out something, unless I feel that it's worth your money and your time.I'm not saying it to be full of myself, but I'm a brand. Just like Nike, Samsung, or Kraft. My brand is my name.

So, what's this all about? Recently, I photographed the children at my son's daycare. It was a blast, and I'll hopefully be doing it again as my brand was effective, delivered what the client wanted, and at the value the client wanted. Naturally, since my son went, my wife turned to me for digital files, so she can have them printed at whatever lab she wants to use. That's fine. A print from a professional lab may cost more, but it's worth it (to me). To my wife, maybe, maybe not. I don't know, and just because I feel this way, doesn't mean she's right or wrong.Well, she went and picked up the photos from a local store today...and It upset me. My brand represents quality. What the store gave my wife is crap. The photos are off-color, underexposed messes. Now, the local chain store has no idea what camera I used, what lens I used, what white balance my camera's are set to, or what color profile my monitor is/has. Well, my computer, and not only my print lab, but my printer knows these things. What I see on screen, is what I see in print. That's pretty remarkable, given that it's a difference between reflected (print) and projected (monitor) light.

So after she brought these home, I naturally went back to my printer to see if I could tell a difference, or if by some possibility (even though I just handed over 130 proofs that all look fantastic...even in draft mode) the problem was on my end.

I load up my printer with some of Canon's Pro Platinum paper (I only have 8x10, so it's comparing an 8x10 to a 4x6, but still), and print one off...the difference is night and day. I used my scanner to scan it. Now I want to stress that my scanner is the biggest piece of crap in the universe. My scanner was $49.99 like 2 years ago. It has crappy resolution. It has crappy rendering. However, I don't scan photos with it. I scan copies of contracts or receipts. It does the job for that. However, even with the junky scanner, I can still see the difference between the two prints. Now I want to note that with my scanner, it appears that there's a yellow cast. I'm not sure if that's the bulb in my scanner, or if that's the glass in the bed. Even my receipts, if they are in full color, end up with that yellowish cast. So for what it's worth, even the competitor's photo is affected...it's just harder to tell, because it's got crappy color to begin with. Mine, without a color cast is easy to see WITH one, because it didn't have one to begin with.

I'm not saying I'm the best, or I'm the be all, end all. I'm saying that the lab I deal with for my photos, is going to look better than anyone in town, or any chain store that prints. There's a reason I strive to make sure my products are good, and it's because I want to be able to stand behind my name.If I pull this scan into photoshop, and look at the RGB levels, I can see plain as day the problems. On almost every end, their's is down 20+ points, even more in some areas. So I'll close my rant with this.In photography, you get what you pay for. There's a reason a lab print costs more than a wal*club*greens*cost*center*kodak counter print. It's because it's right. You paid money to have a photographer chronicle your special day, event, loved one, whatever. Why pay good money for good work, only to put it on crappy print products? You can't build a good house, on a bad foundation. IT just doesn't work that way.

Oh winter...it's not even here yet and I don't like it.

2011-12-05T19:37:00.001-08:00

I'm not a winter type guy. I never really have been. Maybe it's poor circulation in my hands and feet that keep me cold all of the time. Maybe it's been shoveling the umpteen zillion sq ft driveway, alley, sidewalk, path to garage, around the house, front sidewalk and more that I don't like. Maybe it's that it's cold...and maybe it's that I have to shovel...I could go on.Winter is "official" in 16 days...but in my eyes, even if it's Spring or Fall, if there's snow...it's Winter. Well, we've had snow 4 times that I know of in Altoona. I'm not a fan.To hold you over until my next post, though, they aren't Summer, they are definitely not Winter photos. I was reviewing a few odds and ends, and found these and figured that you could enjoy them too. They sure beat snow.

Black Friday...is it so Black?

2011-11-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's been since the beginning of October since I've posted. I can explain why. I took up a gig as an MMA matchmaker. Many of you know that my son was born in April of this year also. I'm shooting more events, and more weddings now, so balancing everything has been quite...hectic to say the least.

I'll sum up being a matchmaker in 2 words. It sucks. Now I'll go into more detail. How hard can it be? Seems like just get a few people that agreed to fight a few other people on a given night, and put them on paper, right? Wrong. You've got people that are fighters up until you give them the chance to be a fighter. You've got people who get injured training. You have people who can't make weight. Others who have to coach baseball. You've got egos from people that think they are better than they are, and want more money than they should get.

I have such a new appreciation for every show that has fights now...because I know first hand how much crap you've got to go through. I'm not talking about Strikeforce or UFC or Bellator that have contracted fighters that they can cull from. I mean the promotions that put on PRO/AM cards and have to deal with there being absolutely no reprecussions for dealing with ammy fighters who want to back out (in PA, if a fighter says they will fight, but then they don't...no way to hold them liable).

It consumed me. My phone had texts and calls non-stop. I had no free time, and it was unfair to my wife, my son, and my business.

Not to mention, while not intentionally, management was difficult at times. He's learning the business now too, and it at times could be arduous. I wanted to say, hey, you're paying me to do a job, let me do that job. Don't second guess me. Don't run to someone else and ask them if my idea is a good one, then call me and say it's a good one. I know it was, I suggested it. However, it wasn't the promoter being a jerk or rude at all. He's new to the business and wants to do it right. He wants to learn it right and not lose a pile of money. So while it was frustrating, I could understand it.

Okay, enough of that. So I toyed with the idea of going black Friday shopping. I tried to go, but later in the day (like 1PM ish) and Ic ouldn't get a parking spot at Sears, so I didn't buy a snow blower. Then I didn't get a parking spot at Target, so I didn't buy a TV for our bedroom. Oh well, saved me some money. I went to the Logan Towne Center to buy a few items, but ended up spending 6 bucks on a cup of coffee...yeah...productive.

So since the last post, photographed a few fights. Was matchmaker for one of them. In no particular order of the fights, here's just some random photos, and as always, you can see full galleries at my website. There's a few other photos mixed in there as well.

IWFC, OSF, Wedding,

2011-10-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, I keep telling myself everytime I sit down to the computer, "add a photo to the blog", and then I get caught up with things and do not get to it.

I took up a gig as a matchmaker for Complete Devastation MMA. Matchmaking is pretty easy when you think about it, but just about the world's largest pain the rear.

You would think it would be "you available to fight on X date?" but there's a lot more to it...all I can say is that you should try it and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Here are some photos from a recent wedding, from IWFC 6 and from OSF carnage.

I say this a lot....been too long!

2011-08-23T10:38:00.001-07:00

Firstly, I just have got to say, that just because I'm not posting doesn't mean I'm not active.

I've been so swamped, between shooting, being a father, editing, being a father, (you get the drift).

I've got soooooo many photographs to put up on the site and on the blog. I've just got to get the extra minutes in the day to revamp everything. Don't worry, it is certainly coming, I promise!

I'll have a post with plenty of photographs of Erik soon, but I want to talk about this last weekend. I photographed a wonderful couple, Stefanie and Mike. They were united in marriage in Maryland on August 20th 2011. Here's just a few quickies that I've posted on facebook, but feel obligated to post here as well. The quality on facebook makes my eyes hurt!

The couple was an absolute blast! Very easy going and laid back. Which was good, because some of our timelines were quite rushed (group formals were done in a total of 5 minutes!, and the bridal formals we shot in 10-15 (I forget what time it was when I started. Cannot remember if it was 6, or 605). A beautiful day for a beautiful wedding. I know the family and guests were hoping the weather held out, because the day before, there was a horrible storm that moved through the area.

The one other major flaw of the day was, we were hoping to shoot by the ponds of the area to get some beautiful reflections. As soon as we were within about 20 feet of the water, we were being attacked by insects! Haha, we retreated and shot some quick, fun portraits.

The beautiful couple having fun, inspite of the hundreds of bugs that were trying to drain us all of our blood! (I read that it would take over 1,000,000 mosquitos to drain the blood out of one average human body).
Groom just prior to reception in his room, looking out, thinking of the future.
For those that wonder, this was at f/2, with some "soft focus" added in post.

Erik!

2011-07-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've not been posting. I've been enjoying a lot of time with my son, Erik. I've been doing shoots here and there on events and portraits, but in the mean time I'm at the gym or with Erik.

I decided to take an enitre week off, and spend it with Erik. It was the best week of my life. I'm so very glad that I did it. All I can say is, I love this boy more than anything.
He was sleeping, and I was taking a few snaps before we went on to see my brother and his other, as she just had a baby yesterday! I'll post event photos soon!

CPWC, and VFL Thunder event

2011-06-12T15:12:00.001-07:00

Okay, I've got a few minutes where my wife is looking after Erik for me. I've got some photograph (highlights) from CPWC that happened June 3rd in Lancaster PA.

The day after I shot at Yankee Lake Brawlroom in Ohio, a bunch of my team was on that card. I'll get those highlights up next, but I wanted to touch upon what happened last evening in Maryland.

I photograph a lot of the VFL events. I was there to photograph this event for the media. That said, if any of you have ever photographed anything media-wise, you are generally told where you can, and cannot be. In this case, the hired help for the fight company knows me pretty well, and one of them told me my location. I figured from the get-go that this would be a tremendous problem, but you do what you're told. The reason this was a problem was, I was to photograph with my back to the main majority of the crowd that is in the stands/bleachers at this baseball stadium. Generally, I am out of site, and I hug one of the posts, that way, my body does NOT distract from the view. The best way to put it is, I'm about as wide as one of the padded posts for the cage. So if I'm up against one, you're not missing anything because of me. In this case, I certainly wasn't up against a post...I was in the middle of a fence section.

If any of you have ever seen a UFC event, you'll see that the UFC's HOUSE photographers (the ones that contribute directly to zuffa) are in the middle of a cage section, and if they are in the way of you...too bad, they aren't to move. While I was nervous about being up there, I also do not want to disobey the promotion and be thrown out on my ass.

On top of that, these fans were made to wait about an hour for the action to resume, after the first fight was stopped at the end of the second round because of the cage being rained in. The fights resumed, and though it was done raining, the rain had done its damage to the cage.

So after the rain stopped, a lot of the cage side fans had to move their chairs back off of the grass. So naturally they are upset, because if I spent that kind of money I would be mad at anyone who would listen to me complain. Now after this, I seen one of the staff members, employed by the ball field speaking with the police and he said, and I quote "if anyone is on the grass, throw them out, they are being assholes. No warnings".

So what I'm getting around to is, I was in a position where not only was I afraid to move because I could get into trouble by the promotion if they felt that way, I was afraid to move because EVEN THOUGH THERE WERE 30 or so people on the grass, I didn't want to be that lucky one that was arrested for it. So I asked one of the hired hands, "could you get me a ladder so I can go to the other side?" He went to get me a ladder, but the crowd was extremely restless and naturally they are angry, so who gets it? I did :(

Well the athletic commission decided that it was too dangerous for the fighters to continue...so they canceled the event. Now...the problem with this is, the fans are even MORE ticked off and they are ready to start a riot. The announcer gets smacked with a beer cup (or can, I didn't see the impact, just the result). It's like, it's not the announcer's fault! It's not the promotion's fault either, and it definitely isn't my fault.

When I was able to get down and speak to some of the fans, they understood where I was coming from. I said that I was told to be here, and I didn't want thrown out or in trouble for moving. Believe me, I sympathize with every single person there that night. I truly do. There was one guy who was saying he was going to "kick my ass", but after I explained to him and his crew, they understood that I wasn't trying to be a jerk. He even said "why didn't you move", and it's like...you see that guy coming with the ladder? I asked for that!

So to everyone that didn't get to hear it from me yesterday, I truly am sorry. If it was a show where I wasn't afraid of being thrown out or arrested for going on the grass, I would have moved IMMEDIATELY. I was in the process of securing a new location when the commission halted the fights.

The only thing I can say is, it sure took the heat off of me when the fights were canceled. I honestly didn't think I was getting out of there in one piece. I just want you to know that it wasn't my decision to upset you fans. It wasn't my decision to be in your way and I was trying to get into a new position. I just couldn't do it in the middle of the round, because that's what I was there to report on.

Okay, enough of that. Here's the photo highlights from CPWC on June 3rd.

Fight Night In The Cage II

2011-05-31T18:35:00.000-07:00

On 5_28_11 I photographed Fight Night In the cage II. Aside from a few lighting hiccups from their lighting crew, it went pretty darn smooth. (The hiccups were for the first 2 fights, the crew had the lights off...)

Good night of fights, and a great crowd. I'll definitely photograph that production again. Here are some highlights.

PS I'll post more before long. I've got to get some new photos of Erik on here (If You've been following me on facebook, you've seen that my son has been all over my page). It's hard, balancing all of my time, and updating the blog. Obviously, my son will come before uploading pictures.

Anyway, here's the fight photos

Beatdown for Berwick Youth

2011-05-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

OKay, so I thought that photographing in Chambersburg was bad...Holy crap, I never, ever, ever have photographed fights in lighting SO BAD in my life time.

Honestly, and only my photographer friends will get this. There were spots in the cage that f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 12800 was 2 f/stops under exposed. That is just not suitable for covering sports. Even though the higher ISO on cameras is looking much better, 6400 in my mind is the usable ceiling, and even at 6400, you've got to get the exposure close.

This is a set that I'm almost ashamed to put up. It's one of the times I wish you could use flash during a fight.

The only reason I'm posting it, is because if I'm the only professional there...and this is all I've got to offer...then that's all the fighters have to represent these fights. These photographs are PURELY journalism. They are not any indication of talent, equipment or photographic examples of anything that I need to put in my portfolio.

It really bums me out, because I strongly dislike offering a product that I'm not proud of.

I wish that it was law that all event promoters had to have well aimed lights in their rings, unless the location had ample lighting. This was not the case. I did have fun though, and it was a good time checking out the fights.

Ugh, just like...it's a shame when you can't set the exposure for something nice. Here, you've got to completely waste highlights to get anything in the face, or you've got to just hope that big blobs of shadow are "okay". Just another day in the life of an event photographer, another hurdle to cross. As a professional, I shouldn't complain. I don't mean to complain, and I hope it doesn't come across that way. A lot of people use my blog not only to find links to their photographs, or to learn of up coming/past events. But fellow and aspiring photographers use it as a learning tool.

I guess the lesson here is, do the best you can do and just know that even if you feel like you're offering crap, if you're offering the best of the bunch, doesn't matter I guess.

Yankee Lake Brawlroom 27

2011-05-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

I went with my fight team, for one of my teamates to fight. His fighter backed out, but I photographed the night.

To my photographer buddies, they will understand what I mean when I say this.
ISO 6400 1/320, and the lights were fluorescents. You can color correct an image that has even color throughout it, but without making multiple layers of the same image, it is damn difficult to color correct one that has multiple color casts to it.

Fluorescent lights cycle, so when you use a shutter speed faster than the light, you catch part of the cycle, and it either has a color cast, or a band of color in the photo.

I was not pleased with how my photographs turned out as a result of this.

You can see the full gallery here.
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/Yankee-Lake-Brawlroom-27-43011/16858977_545XhK#1272854089_3w2qTbL

Erik

2011-04-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

My son, minutes after joining the world.

IWFC 5

2011-04-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm 2 weeks back from IWFC 5. I feel badly that I didn't post sooner, however I've been spending time with my wife before our child is due. She's been having some "issues" in the last trimester, with gestational diabetes. She's doing great, giving herself her shots and taking her sugars to make sure our baby is healthy. I'm very proud of her.

Anyway, we've been getting the house and baby items ready for our new arrival and have had a few "scares" about a possible emergency c-section and all of that. Whether she wants to, or he wants to, on Monday morning, her birthday, they are inducing her into labor.

They were close to doing it a few times over the past few weeks, but the doctor's decided to hold off. So if she doesn't go into labor over this weekend, it'll be on her birthday. With a little luck, our son comes out on mama's birthday and it's the best birthday gift a mother could ask for.

I'll be posting a lot of photographs, don't worry.

I photographed the IWFC 5 at the Blair County Convention center. Given the title, I'm sure you can figure out it was the 5th itteration of this event. A great night of fights and action. UFC Fighter Charlie Brenneman was there signing autographs, and like an 8 year old child, I had my photograph with him and had him sign a poster! YEAH! I've got an 8x10 of him that was ordered through me from one of his VFL fights framed, and signed on the wall beside a photograph I've got of Dan Severn that is also signed. Yeah, I'm like a kid. Not to mention a framed April 1965 Playboy (it used to be 75 cents!)

Here's a link to a gallery of the photographs. Buy a bunch!
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/IWFC5-422011/16456803_pHSRb#1238396010_hpDUD

After my wife is out of the hospital, I'll be resuming normal shooting schedule and activities. I've got a few MMA shows coming up and a few more "tenative" dates.

Stay tuned!

A future.

2011-04-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

My wife is nearing her due date quickly. It seems like only yesterday we were having discussions as to when we would have children. Only last evening that she tells me that we're having a baby. She called me yesterday to mess with me, and said "grab my bag we're going to the hospital". It was April Fool's Day. She had to prank me with something. When she said grab the bag, I felt incredible. A feeling came over me that I cannot quite explain. We she said "Just kidding", I was like...phew, I've got a few more days yet!

The best way to explain it is, I'm nervous as can be but excited at the same time. I'm wondering all of the things that I assume GOOD parents worry about. Will I make enough money? Will I teach my child right from wrong? Will my child love me?

I took a day for myself off of everything on April Fool's Day. I only went to get my haircut, and conveniently for me the girl didn't have much to say. I just kept to myself, handled some stuff around the house, and played some games. I took the day as one of the last days that I will not be a parent. I didn't really even spend too much time with my wife. I just was me. It is ironic, that even though I took a day for me, all I could think about was my family. My son. My wife. As selfish as it is that I took a day off of everything just for me, I realized that my family is now what defines me. I took the day away from everything, and ending up thinking about everything! My wife has a chair that she put into the babie's room. A glider/rocker that she is going to nurse our son in/on. I sat in it for awhile and just looked around the room. Thinking about what it was when I bought this house, and what it was in between (I rented the room out for a few years, then it became an office) and now it is my son's room.

I walked throughout the house, and thought to myself..."what needs to change for my son?"

I've never been overwhelmed by my accomplishments. I don't really feel like anything is out of the ordinary. Sure, my past is different than a lot of people's. Sure, my childhood may have been crumby compared to some. It may have been excellent compared to others. For the most part, I just feel like I've done what I've been supposed to do. I don't want to say that when my wife told me she was pregnant, that it didn't sink in. It did, and I realized the true gravity of this situation. When we seen the first ultra-sound, it stuck a little further. When we seen the second, and I heard "you're having a son", it kicked in a little further. When I put my arm on my wife, and I feel him kick/punch it sinks in a little more. When she told me to "grab the bag", I realized it more.

So this little man, this is my purpose. This is my overwheming accomplishment. To provide for him. To love him. To teach him. This baby. My son. He is my future.

I've never felt love like this. Everytime I feel like I cannot love him anymore, I love him more! I haven't even met him yet and I would give the world for him. I cannot wait to meet you Erik, my son. Be a good boy for your mother and I. I promise, I'm going to be a good parent for you.

Here's some photographs from the room. I was going to correct the wide angle lens distortion, and said...no, no I won't. For anyone that cares to know, all were shot with a FF camera with a 16-35 f/2.8 Canon, and almost all at ISO 1600.

PFC5

2011-04-02T07:40:00.001-07:00

Simple headshot?

2011-04-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

EDIT- This blog was originally to be posted earlier in the month. In err, instead of hitting "post" I hit "save now" and it lay dormant. I also did this with another recent blog entry too, and I caught the mistake today (4-2) when I went to get this evening's ready.

Okay, so I gave my self a photo project to photograph a few ladies with a simple headshot. The turn out was great, and we all had a great time photographing this set. Here's a few from the day.

VFL MMA

2011-03-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

I'm gearing up for another installment of VFL MMA. As an official photographer to several MMA organizations on the East coast, and a freelance media photographer AND as a staff photographer to matcombatsports.com I am pretty busy with the MMA scene.

I realized that after the last event in VA that I photographed (a VFL event) that I wrote a blog, BUT didn't freakin' post it! D'oh! (Homer Simpson style).

So here's some photographs of that great night of boxing, kick boxing and MMA. These are just a few samples. Check out the full gallery at my website.

Complete Devastation MMA

2011-02-27T16:59:00.001-08:00

So Saturday night was a great night! A lot of times, when I'm photographing MMA, I'm photographing it away from home. However, this time I got to shoot one IN ALTOONA! Sounds pretty good already. UFC 127 was also Saturday night, and BJ Penn happens to be one of my favorite fighters. The Altoona fights ended early enough that I was able to go watch them too! Win/Win!

There's another reason why I am extremely happy for the show, and was extremely excited for it to happen...I had a hand in it! However small it is, I got to work with the match maker, and the promoter on their freshman effort on the show. I brough in talent to be a ring girl! I'm also the newly selected official photographer of CDMMA, can't beat a gig like that.

The fight card had 9 fights on it. 6 Am and 3 Pro. Below are some of the photo highlights of the evening. The results of the evening were,
Brett Hicks Defeats Jacob Johnson UD
Tyler Updike defeats Ryan Glunt UD
Roy Merriman defeateds Christian DeHass via TKO (knee injury)
Jason Royer defeats Arthur Campbell via UD
Brad Mountain defeats Nick Hornick via UD
Jeff Runk defeats Andrew Ricketts via arm bar 1:37 Rd 2
Richard Brooks defeats Shane Darby via TKO 1:38 Rd 2
Josh Huber defeats Bret Thomas UD
Blaine Balicki defeats Bruce Monroe via UD.

Full Gallery on my website!
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/Complete-Devastation-MMA/16002540_hV4VY#1200462307_Rb7M8

As always, I've got to get a photo with the ring girls! Many thanks to my beautiful wife for shooting this photo! To all of the world, you cannot even get a wife that's 1/100 as awesome as mine! She's the best wife ever.

Sarah, MMA in VA, radio

2011-02-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm gearing up to photograph an MMA show in VA. It's all ammy, but the rules in VA for amateurs, are the same as pro rules are in PA...so basically it's a card of these hungry fighters, eager to prove something before they go pro. I'm really looking forward to it, and will have a full write up as usual, with a photo gallery.

It's also been brought to my attention that my friends, fans, family, and people who just know who I am, have been hearing my name on the radio! Shows the growth we've had in such a short period of time. Look for me Feb 26th in ALTOONA, at the Complete Devastation MMA show at the Blair County Convention center. Also stop by and check out lovely ring girl Stephanie! (I hope to get a date of shooting in with her for some photos for her/mine/the sites).

Sarah is a friend, a girl that I enjoy photographing. Here's a few from a recent set. She's down to Earth, photographs well, and lets me do what I want in the processing department. Basically, it's just having fun :)

Thanks Sarah!

VFL MMA MDSD 5

2011-01-30T15:21:00.000-08:00

Just back from VFL MMA's 29th installment of mixed martial arts action. The Mason Dixon Showdown V took place Jan. 29th 2011. It was a card of mixed martial arts, and boxing. 8 MMA bouts and 6 boxing bouts.
Quick results from the evening.
Jared Ferguson Defeated Cory Dawson via UD.
Nelson Moody Defeated Edward Spiker via UD.
Spencer Strube Defeated Samuel Martin Via Knock Out 9 Seconds Rd1
Brandon Wheeler defeated Sean Diehl via Triangle Choke 1:24 of Rd 1
Mark Krumrine defeated Timothy Lafferty Via Walk Over (opponent didn't show to fight).
Jay Haas defeated Stephen Franklin via Arm Bar 42 seconds Rd1
Justin Hickey defeated Ryan Harder Via TKO 3:37 Rd 2
Tenyeh Dixon Defeated Jeremy Carper via UD

Boxing
Rodrigo Alonso defeated Terrence Dixon Via Decision
Jesse Athey Defeated Christian Madranno Via Decision
Darius Dukes defeated Christopher Glenn Via Decision
Devar Ferhadi defeated Hasan White via Stoppage Rd 3
Matthew Bowling Defeated Javier Lopez Via Decision
Lionell Royer Jr defeated Dave Monteith Via Decision.

Jared Ferguson and Cory Dawson at 145 lbs was the first match-up of the evening. The two traded blows on the feet and positions on the ground looking for submissions. It was competitive, but ultimately the Red corner's Jared Ferguson would win a hard fought UD.
Nelson Moody and Edward Spiker at 135 lbs was the second match-up for the evening. They both fought for take downs, Spiker regained positions, but spent a lot of time on his back. UD to Moody.

The third match-up of the evening, Spencer Strube against Samuel Martin took place at 165 lbs. The match lasted 9 seconds, with Strube landing one shot... The shot that ended the fight. The after math lasted longer than the match, the walk outs, and introductions. Martin was knocked for a loop and thought he was still fighting, even though the commission director, and doctor were trying to reach him. They had him held down, and he still was moving about. Thankfully, after the paramedics got him boarded, and got oxygen to him, he was "aware" when he was taken away. The fights were briefly halted as a result of there not being an ambulance available (Martin was taken away via ambulance, and there must be one ready at all times, so until a replacement came the fights were halted.)

As soon as the ambulance arrived, the 4th match up with Brandon Wheeler and Sean Diehl at 145 lbs took place. After Wheeler dropped Diehl, they exchanged positions on the ground, with Wheeler having secured an armbar, and transitioned to a triangle choke. Wheeler wins via Triangle choke. This is not without controversy as the fighter claims to have no tapped. The referee informed the fighter that he had lost consciousness and it was stopped for his safety. The fans far away thought it was a bad stoppage. The ringside officials thought it was a good stoppage.

The 5th match that was supposed to happen was Mark Krumrine and Timothy Lafferty at 265 lbs. Mark won the match, because his opponent didn't show up.

The first pro bout of the night was Jay Haas and Stephen Franklin at 155lbs. Haas acted quickly, securing an armbar after an initial scramble. The referee stopped the action, and Franklin claimed he didn't tap. Cageside officials sided with the referee's stoppage, as do I (It was in my field of view and I was the next closest person besides the referee to the action). The arm was hyperextended (I seen this_, and the fighter let out a yell and slapped his arm. (this is what the referee told me) The referee jumped in immediately and stopped it. It is my opinion that the referee stopped that young man from needing surgery, whether or not the kid believes it. Haas wins via armbar.

Justin Hickey and Ryan Harder at 135lbs was a fireball of action. Both fighters exchanging heavily in the pocket, content to stand and trade. At one point Hickey reminded me of 1990's Vitor Belfort bum rushing his opponent and throwing bombs. Harder stayed with it until the 2nd round, at which point Hickey just overwhelmed his opponent and won via stoppage.

In the MMA main event, game veterans Jeremy Carper and Tenyah Dixon squared off at 170 lbs. The story of this fight was Dixon overwhelming Carper with what appeared to be his strength and tired ground work. Dixon won a convincing, though underwhelming unanimous decision.

Boxing

The first boxing bout took place after the promoter's crew tore down the cage and assembled the boxing ring (you need to see this, as it's a work of art. No wonder ancient man was able to construct the pyramids!)

Rodrigo Alonso fought Terrence Dixon at 125 lbs. Alonso controlled the action, knocking down Dixon several times. Alonso won a well earned decision.

Christian Madranno fought Jesse Athey in the 140lb division (I think these were juniors, or something. They were both in their teens?). Madranno put Athey on the receiving end of a few standing 8 counts en route to a decision win.
Darius Dokes and Christopher Glenn squared off at 114 lbs. These two young men exchanged knockdowns, and slips in an exciting fight between two juniors. Dokes wins in decision fashion.

Devar Ferhadi and Hasan White faced off at 170 lbs, with White being on the receiving end of quite a few good smackings. The exchanges had Ferhadi coming out on the better end each time, with White having 3 standing 8 counts in the 1st, 2 or 3 in the second, and being stopped in the 3rd round. Ferhadi wins via TKO.

Mathew Bowling and Javier Lopez faced off at 135lbs. Bowling controlled the fight, and came out the better of the two in the exchanges. Bowling won via decision.

In the main boxing event, Lionell Royer Jr faced off against David Monteith at 180lbs. This match was competitive, with both fighters landing punches and combinations. At one point Lionell's coach and father yelled "When you listen, it works! 1-2-3-2". The fight was back and forth, but popular opinion (including the referee who was stunned when the winner was announced) was that Monteith was winning the decision, however Royer won by decision. Chants of "bullshit" erupt from the crowd.

Details on the model search

2011-01-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, the search is going well. I'm still interested in gathering just a couple more girls for this, but as it stands it's coming along well. There's a few out there that contacted me about this, but then nothing back when I sent the information, so I"m crossing them off of the list.

As of this moment, I'm going to shoot this over 2 days. Not a full 2 day project, but I'm going to shoot a few at a friend's place (Wendy), and a few at another location I've secured (date to be determined on that one).

So I've got to post some more details about this shoot, and I figured what I would do is type them up here on the blog, and send the link to the girls, rather than retyping it 10 times over. Also this can serve to perspective girls some more information about the project.

What I'm doing with this project is, I want to create a beauty portrait of several women. This will be a head and shoulders photograph (both in the horizontal and vertical aspect, as in I'll be shooting both). It will be cleanly lit, bright white background, but also if space/time permits I will shoot against black too (for the contrast AND I don't want to do the project then wish I shot both!).

Wardrobe- Doesn't matter what you wear. For the project, you'll have a clean/clear neckline. for this you'll need either an off of the shoulder shirt, a sleeveless shirt and strapless bra, or strapless bra and a tank top that you can slide the straps down. THIS IS NOT A NUDE SHOOT! This is not near nude and there is nothing provocative about this! If you look at your collar bone, and about 1-3" below that, that's all the more that is showing! That means if you want to wear sweat pants and flip flops, you can!

However, if time is permitting we can shoot some full length photographs too, so if you come wearing sweat pants and flip flops, perhaps bring something else full length too! This can be anything from suit jacket and skirt/pants, or jeans and a t-shirt or an evening gown. Doesn't matter. I figure if you're volunteering for my project and we've got time, why not shoot a few fun photos too!

Makeup--This is something important. I'm not looking for anything outlandish or over the top. This picture serves a pretty good example (and actually what I want to do for the project). NOTE I DID NOT TAKE THE BELOW PHOTO! This is from Scott Kelby, a prolific writer and photographer. This is only to show an example of what I'm looking to do.

This doesn't mean that I'm not interested in shooting more crazy makeup or anythign like that. Just like I said above, after we shoot for the project, we can shoot other images as well. The other thing is, for this, it would be great if you can pull your hair into a pony tail, BUT that's not 100% required, just helps with the clean lines.

Okay! Any questions, don't hesitate to get a hold of me, and let's get this project rolling!

Rob

Model Search

2011-01-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be as brief as possible, so I don't confuse with too many details.

To the point;

I am looking for female models for a photo project that I have desire to start.
Here's the details.

There is no pay for this service. No travel expense. No make-up expense. None.
There is no cost for this. It is an even exchange. Think of it as time for jpeg/time for cd.
Model must be 18 years or older.
This is NOT for a NUDE shoot. This is FULL clothing.
Not everyone will be accepted. Inquiry doesn't constitute acceptance.
If you agree and schedule, then you need to reserve the date/time. There are no reshoots because the dog ate your home work. My time is valuable, just like yours. Don't waste mine if you're not interested in following through, as I won't waste yours.
You do not need to be a professional model.

So if you agree/meet the above, then read this.

I'm looking for 6-10 female models with good-excellent facial features/expression, for a head/shoulders beauty project that I would like to complete. You would be given a cd of images from the shoot, and have rights to reproduce them. I will also retain rights to the photos to do with what I wish also (advertise/post, so on so forth). You will have to sign a model release, but I will also be signing a limited copyright release for you, so this is an even exchange. You get my expertise, work and product. I get your time and modeling work.

Again, YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A PROFESSIONAL MODEL for this! Amateurs are welcome! Speaking candidly, this is the perfect chance to get a great head shot from a professional photographer for no outward cost.

Location will be in the Altoona area (space being secured and date(s) being set). Wardrobe/hair/make-up to be discussed. While I'm not really looking for outlandish make-up (just standard beauty make-up) I'm not opposed to shooting a few of those, after we get what I'm looking for.

For inquires, check out the website, e-mail or facebook me your information and we'll talk!

My son.

2010-12-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

My wife made some stupid bet with her uncle, that she could keep the secret of our babie's sex until Christmas Eve. So I couldn't post this as soon as I knew, and it was killing me not to! My baby is too cool for everyone not to know what IT is...

Well IT isn't an IT anymore. IT is a BOY!

I would like to introduce you to my son. We have a name picked, but are up in the air about the spelling. We want something very simple, but also unique.

I cannot wait to teach my son all sorts of things! Maybe he'll like baseball, or breaking the hearts of many girls. Maybe he'll like books or cameras. I don't know! All I know is I can't wait to meet him.

Are things getting better???

2010-12-12T18:33:00.000-08:00

Before I start, I want to say that my living room is at 68 degrees.

There are so many different types of photography out there. You have everything from advertising, stock, weddings, portraiture, sports, macro so on so forth. You can break down each category into something else. A lot of things fall into photo journalism. Photo journalism to me is more than just news. I take it simply as the two words.

A photo journal.

A journal of photographs.

A collection of photographs to tell a story.

Photo journalists in my mind are both paid and unpaid. Some are working some are just taking photographs to document things, and the may or may not realize it. Some are in the military, some are traveling to different locations.

So I'm driving home from the mall, best buy and Sam's club. I was looking to do some Christmas shopping, and to price a new desktop computer. I had some take-out pizza in the car too. (All of this has a point).

What do I see? I see a man holding a sign saying "homeless, looking for work". He didn't have a cup asking for money, he had a sign asking for work. He had his possessions in a back pack, and was standing in the cold, rain. I hurry home quick, and eat my pizza combo, feeling guilty the entire time. So I go through the kitchen and get some produce, a few bottles of water, a few bagels, and some packaged things to eat. I put them in a shopping bag, and check my wallet for how much cash I have on me.

I drive back with the bag of items, and park about 100 feet away, then walk towards the man. I hand over the bag of food and explain to him that I do not have any work for him but am interested in learning about him. I ask his name and he tells me that it's Mike. I say, "Mike, I am absolutely against giving away money. Food is yours to keep no matter what you say, but can I give you a few dollars to let me photograph you?".

He said, sure. So I shouldn't have done this (because it's not exactly safe) but I open my wallet and show him that I've got a handful of singles and I'm giving him all of them for this. That it's not a handout, that I'm hiring him to do a quick job. He seemed pleased and happily accepted the exchange. So I go across the way and photograph him, and then when I came back I said that I'd like to take a close-up. So I got my photographs, and then I asked him his story.

Mike was born a heroin addict. His mother was on drugs through the pregnancy and he was born an addict. He said that he has been in and out of the system and explained to me the pains of addiction and his faith in God to make things okay for him. he says that he doesn't need much of anything. He would just like to have food in his belly that he worked for.

I asked him what his skill set was. He said that he is mainly a laborer, and can do most labored aspects in home building. He also said that during his time incarcerated that he learned either Office or Word 1997-2005 (I cannot remember which).

Now I know what most people are thinking, I've got a man who is a convict telling me that he found God, and is a changed man. I know, that's the story of every convict.

I do not know whether or not to believe him, but I can't help but think that there's some guy standing int he rain, looking for work, and it's freaking COOOOLD outside. The guy sleeps under underpasses and wherever he can. That he wants to go to a temporary labor place, but he needs a new social security card and he can't get one because he doesn't have a permanent address. That he tried a PO box but they aren't valid for it, and that he was going to save up the 65 dollars for a mail box at mailboxes etc or whatever it is called, and get his social security card so he could get temporary work. That maybe he could get a hotel room for 120 a week where there is heat, at least through the winter.

So I sometimes forget how lucky I am to be in the position I am in. I have a small, modest home, but a home none-the-less for my wife and unborn child. I have a wife, and an unborn child. I have a job, at least until they lay me off (The management of where my day job is at, wants to get rid of everyone in 3 departments, and outsource the labor to contract companies.I cannot say anything detailing the negotiations, as it is not in good faith of the negotiations. What I am saying though is public knowledge.

Okay, back to the point, I've got a car, worldly possessions, and the amenities of a modern life, while there's a guy who wants to work and can't get work. Tonight when I go to bed, it'll be in a bed, in a heated bedroom with a blanket. This guy will be outside in the rain.

So I say, Are things getting better? Altoona is a town with like 50,000 people in it and the area of Duncansville and Holidaysburg. We shouldn't have homeless wandering around town. It just doesn't seem to be right.

What this has told me is, that I have a true appreciation of photo journalists that detail the more REAL things in life. What I mean is, the things that make us sad, upset, scared, frightened. The people that can document these things and do it. Because, this has me heart broken.

!!! What!?

2010-12-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

So...it's cold and been snowing on and off in PA. So I decide to go take some photos out in the snow...stops snowing as soon as I get in the car.

I decided to take a photo of some birds, and a mirror self portrait...I'm not big on pictures of me, but every once in awhile I should put my face out there...let everyone know I'm really a human and not some robot with a camera (or maybe I am, who knows anymore. With as much Thera Flu and headcold medicine I've been taking/drinking I could be a robot. Powered by Nyquil).

PFC 4 Blackman MMA Harrisburg PA

2010-11-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

This is a week overdue. I had gotten the photographs ready for the blog, and then fell ill. I was pretty sick for a few days, then I started feeling better on Wednesday. Well Wednesday night, I became even worse. Even today, I am not up to par yet.

However, I can write something about the last MMA event I photographed.

To sum it up in one word, Excellent. I don't know if you guys know who Steve Blackman is. He's a former WWF/E superstar, and an impressive mountain of a human being. He is now an MMA promoter and has some excellent shows.

Yours truly was lucky enough to be at one of his events, at the Zembo temple in Harrisburg PA. Being a Shriner, it was also cool to get to see another temple so it was an added bonus.

The night was original slated for 8 pro fights, but 2 fighters backed out on their opponents, so it was a night of 6 pro fights, and 7 amateur fights. It was a damn good night of fights. Every single person on the card fought their asses off.

A few other things I can say about the promotion is that Steve has his shit together. He runs a tight ship. The people that work for him listen, and they listen well. His promotion shows it too. The fans weren't restless. They were entertained for hours.

I also made it out of the event after photographing it for the evening, in time to make it to a local sports bar and walk in RIGHT AS BJ Penn started fighting. Good thing I made it when I did! That fight didn't last long!

Until next time,

CPWC9 photos

2010-11-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

A little late, but I'm getting ready to type up the blog for the most recent show I photographed, so I figured I'd better get these up quickly! :)

Full gallery is located here,

http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/CPWC-9-11122010/14636289_K2apW#1089088491_V8QzH

My write-ups, as usual with photo highlights appear on matcombatsports.com

Thanks!

Central PA Warrior Challenge 9

2010-11-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! It's been two weeks since our last update. Been working on a lot of behind the scenes stuff that will come to light before too long! Stay posted for that.

On Friday Novemeber 12th, Mark Jovich had the 9th installment of the Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge in York PA. A beautiful day to drive down and see some of the good ol' Pennsylvania turnpike (I don't feel like I get 15 dollars worth of value from the Turnpike when I use it, however...I'm lazy! So I guess I have to pay to play :( )

The downside with turnpike receipts is they are printed on this crappy paper with ink that must eat right through the paper as soon as it's printed. I keep them for my taxes, and I have receipts that are just a few weeks old that look like they are from the prehistoric peroid of mankind.

Enough of that nonsense :) The fight card was stacked with both pro and amateur talent. 16 fights in all.

The photographs from the night can be seen here,

http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/CPWC-9-11122010/14636289_K2apW#1089088491_V8QzH

There are watermarks on the images and download protection for a reason, it means they aren't free to take. I hate to stress this, but there's been a lot of trouble lately with people feeling entitled to my work (and the work of other people too).

As with a lot of the MMA coverage, I've written a quick results, a photo highlights, and also a small article for mid atlantic combat sports. I need to stress that EVERYTHING that is sent in to ANY media station is edited. This is MOSTLY good. See, it keeps the writer from looking like a complete fool for making terrible errors. One of the things I do A LOT is...

"In a welterweight bout, Dane Cook FACED off against Dennis Leary. The action STARTS early with Dennis pounding Dane's eyes shut. Dane REBOUNDED and FLEW off of the top rope".

See, past and present tense in the same sentence. Now my editor will tell you...I am getting better with it! It's a process. I make no claim to being a professional writer.

The reason I bring this up though, is sometimes folks read an article that I wrote and was edited. They don't realize that it was edited by someone who WASN'T the writer, and wonder why perhaps their bout was left out. Sorry if this has happened to you. When asked about it the answer I'm provided with is that there's space constraints, and that they are looking mainly for "highlights". I can appreciate their position. Afterall someone said that searching for a youtube video worth watching is like panning for gold in a river of shit, or picking to drown in pee or drown in water...

No one wants to wade through tons of dross to look for a few sentences worth reading. So I can appreciate both sides and just wanted to get that information out there. Please don't be angry with me, OR the publications. This is just the nature of the beast.

Here are the links on matcombat's site
Quick results
http://uscombatsports.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=234:mid-atlantic&id=7803:central-pennsylvania-warrior-challenge-9-quick-results&Itemid=325

Photo highlights
http://uscombatsports.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=234:mid-atlantic&id=7830:central-pennsylvania-warrior-challenge-9-photohighlights&Itemid=325

Write up
http://uscombatsports.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=234:mid-atlantic&id=7825:central-pennsylvania-warrior-challenge-9-honors-and-highlights&Itemid=325

So Friday turned out to be a damn exciting night of fights...but of considerable note worth mention...Noe Quintanilla. A seasoned professional fighter with a ton of fights. Friday was the first time his wife seen him in a pro bout! Another fellow Rumsey, it was his 21st fight on his 21st birthday.

The main event fight winner proposed to his girlfriend in the cage! Congratulations to both!

(EDIT! I've got an upload tying up all of my bandwitdh. I'll get some photos in this blog tomorrow! Thanks!)

VFL Mason Dixon Showdown

2010-10-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

I'm fresh back home after the VFL Mason Dixon Showdown 4 show, in Chambersburg PA. It was a mixed card of fights. Both pro and amateur, also featuring 6 amateur boxing bouts.

I contribute articles to a sports website, and from there an editor articulates a bit better, my message.
Here is a link to the article for the night,

(copy and paste into your browser...)http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-results/vfl-28-mason-dixon-showdown-honors-and-highlights.html

Here is a link to the "quick results" (just who won/lost)
(copy and paste into your browser...)
http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-results/vfl-28-mason-dixon-showdown-quick-results.html

There were some great fights for the night. Hungry fighters looking to make their mark. I will post the full gallery on my website in the next 14 hours (They are uploading now), then I'll edit this post with a link to those photographs.

For now, you'll have to enjoy the photo-highlights of the night (the same ones that can be found on the matcombat site).

See you at the next VFL MMA event in Altoona, PA on December 11th! I'll be in Harrisburg PA on November 20th, and Lancaster on the 12th, all for MMA :) Look forward to the photographs!

Rob

IWFC 4 and changes to the website

2010-10-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Before I begin the actual "text" part of the blog, I've got to take a minute to compliment ANYONE who EVER steps into ANY combat arena. This doesn't matter if it's a gladitorial arena, a cage, or a ring. I am a true lover of combat sports. As a long time practitioner of Judo and JuJitsu and a long time fan of MMA, these events are special to me. Win or Lose, if you get in the ring I've got immense respect for you.

Everyone who is a fan needs to take just a minute to think about the chances these fighters take for us and our entertainment. The risk to life and limb, and especially these up and comers who work full-time jobs while fighting, who make maybe 100 dollars to risk injury to their body to do what they love.

Thank you to every fighter out there. You've got my respect.

The spoils of war for the winner

The taste of defeat for the loser of the battle

(for the photographers out there, the EXIF is ISO 6400 @ 1/400)

Okay here, where to begin? See this is the trouble I've got with blogging. I'm not a good writer. My grammar online isn't near perfect and sometimes I struggle to get the point across in as few words as possible.

I happen to be one of the fortunate few (well there's two of us, Nick and I) that are the "official" photographers for the Iron Will Fighting Championship. So naturally if they have a show, I'm photographing it. The show was at the S and T bank arena in Indiana, PA. It was a very good crowd for a great night of fights. I'm not exactly sure who the match maker is, but the promoters need to pat themselves on the back. It was on hell of a night of fights.

Here is a link to the photographs on my website for purchase,
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/IWFC4/14344831_BLmNm#1062051375_xw43p
(copy and paste into your browser)
I am a contributing writer and photographer for Mid Atlantic Combat, so I will be posting a few links to their website (as of now, my quick results and photo highlights are up on their site. I'll edit this blog as the full write up I did is posted).
For the "quick results" article, check here,
http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-results/iron-will-fighting-championship-4-quick-results.html (copy and paste into your browser).

For the "photo highlights" section, check here,
http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-photo-highlights/iron-will-fighting-championship-4-photohighlights.html (copy and paste into your browser)

Okay, so my thoughts on the night in as short of a statement as possible.

Great fights, hungry fighters, great action.

Making a guest appearance was UFC Veteran Charlie Brenneman. Charlie is a home-town hero, and an excellent fighter. Let's wish him well in his upcoming bout in January.

So here's some photographs from the night. Check out my blog often for discounts on photo sessions (I'm not just an action photographer, I also photograph portraits, weddings and events.)

Okay, I talk about changes to my website in the title. Here's the changes. Even with right click protection, individuals have been circumventing the security precautions and still stealing the photographs off of my site. Now the right click isn't fool proof, but it's there to keep people honest. Even though my website clearly says that I am copyright owner of all work posted, people still feel entitled.

I've been toying with this idea for QUITE some time, and have come to a conclusion. I must watermark my photographs. This is the only way to help deter theft of my work.

Now if you order photographs from the website these watermarks will NOT affect your purchase. Your photographs will be delivered CLEAN from the watermarks. However when you're browsing you'll have to see the message, © Rob Lynn Photography @ www.RobLynn.org

I am very sorry that I've had to do this, however I have to do what I can to put a stop to the theft of my work. Yes, I do love what I do and yes I do love putting the photographs out there, however the time, the website, and the equipment doesn't pay for itself.

How do you top that?

2010-10-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I'd been wanting to post a new blog since I posted the first photographs of my child. However, I don't really think there's any better photo than the 1st (well 2nd!, I photographed my wife and I on the beach, and she was pregnant then!) photo of my child.

Well... Here's the deal. My kid has to grow! I'll get more ultrasound/sonogram pictures and have to post them too!

So don't worry, you'll see plenty of baby updates. I guess that's the cross my child will have to bear, you know...having a photographer father and all :)
So, what about all of these photographs that I said I would be posting? Well! I've still got a ton of work to do, however, here's a few to get you going!

I've still got a ton of photographs to process from various shoots, so things like the zoo and such will take some time to get posted. Here's a few that were recent. Two young models, Sarah and Wendy. Wendy also does double duty as a make-up artist. She's very good, and very reasonably priced. A young man who is graduating highs-school, an even younger man who is graduating to a mouth full of teeth, and a tiger getting ready to rip into someone...or not.

I'll be photographing Iron Will Fighting Championship 4 in Indiana PA this weekend, and also contributing photographs to matcombatsports.com, and an article as well.

I just got to give a shout out to my wife. Wife, thanks for being there and supporting the business and me. Lots of <3 You tolerate the late nights I put in, and the early mornings. You're going to be a great mother.

Worth 1000 words

2010-10-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the deal. I've been EXTREMELY busy lately. I know, I could have posted SOMETHING to keep you going. I promise, I've got a lot of photographs to post, and I will. However, this is going to be my post. Don't worry, I've got some lovely photographs of two wonderful young ladies (Sarah and Wendy), a great family session, a senior session, another child session, and a bunch of wild-life photos to post. I will certainly get to them in the next few days/weeks. However;

I've known for a few months that I'm going to be a father. Today made it all of the more real.

Without any more chatter, here's the photographs.

long overdue

2010-09-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

When my wife and I went to Florida for a family vacation, naturally I packaged some camera equipment to go with me. However, I didn't do much photography while I was there. See, where I live pretty much all year round, with the exception of Winter you can go in and out without prepping your camera equipment. However, in Florida, when you're in an air conditioned condo with like no humidity, then you walk outside to the Florida air, with humidity and higher temperature you get condensation...bad condensation.

There were times it took a full 20 minutes before I could shoot. So I just chose to not take that many pictures. There are work arounds to it, but I was more on vacation than I was on a photo-vacation.

I wanted to photograph a sunset, and a sunrise. Figures...clouds every day at those times. Skies could be as clear as could be, but sunrise, sunset time...clouds every where. However I did make a few photographs of what I could. Now there's several ways to photograph sunsets and sunrises without burning your retinas out of your head. I am too lazy to do them. My main areas of photography are people and I don't photograph landscapes much.

One involves neutral density filters and blah blah blah. I don't care enough to do it, so I probably shouldn't even type it. Or you can do it like I did...the ol' college try. Only have the sun in the frame while you shoot the shot and just "guess" the metering. Like you can meter the sky beside and figure out where you need to be from there.

That's the approach I took and I got some interesting photographs of it. The other thing I like doing is making round objects look like stars. I did this to the Sun for fun!

I also shot a photograph of my wife and I at the beach (yep...I shot it and was in it). I broke the rules for this, as it wasn't mean to be an award winning portrait photograph. It was meant to be a documentation of my wife and I at the beach. I shot with the sun to our faces (a no-no in portraiture). I did it because, well the beach was behind us and the sun was in front of us. During the day on the beach in Florida it is difficult to find a place that the Sun isn't beating right at you, either high above or in front of you. Now if the Sun was behind us, we would have been in shadow and the sky exposed properly, or we properly and the sky blown out. I wasn't using fill flash, so I just made the best of it.

I photographed a sea turtle too. You know how people say turtles are slow? This thing bolted when it had enough of my crap, and it moved faster that I probably could. I bet if it wanted to beat me up, it could have.

Also, Florida has tons of these little lizards. I mean they are freaking everywhere. You know how in PA, we have ant's and flies? They have lizards.

Alright, so I'm out in the yard the other night (this is after we're home from Florida), and the sky looks wicked. There's this circle around the moon and I'm thinking that I should go get a camera, right? So I get a full-frame camera (photographers will know what I mean) and a 16-35mm lens. I figure, I'll get this thing figured out. I also think I'm photographing some rare phenomenon that never occurs and that I'll be onto something big...

Guess what, a lunar halo is a common celestial occurance, and nothing to get worked up over. However, I still photographed it...yeah, I'm that big of a rebel.

I've rambled entirely too much, so I'll post some pictures, and we'll go from there. There's a mindset in the professional photography business that you shouldn't let anything than your best out there. However, I feel that just some snapshots on vacation, or the back yard aren't a big deal. Besides, it's something to look at for awhile, while your I-pod is loading :)

Oh, and I took a photograph of my cat with an ultra wide angle lens, at minimum focusing distance to emphasize the distortion this lens can bring on when used on a subject close up (this is normal and inherent of the focal length, and not a problem with the equipment). So my cat looks like the Taco Bell dog. So Yo Quero Gato! (spelling is off, but what can you do).

VFL+LITC, links and photo heavy episode

2010-09-14T13:27:00.001-07:00

This weekend I photographed 2 big MMA events in PA. One was the event Locked In The Cage in Lancaster PA. I photographed this as a staff at Mid Atlantic Combat Sports. I'll post the link to the full gallery on their site, once the FTP transfer is finished. Until then, you can check out my web galleries for a full fight gallery. On their website, here's a quick "photo highlights" gallery. These are just 8 of the evening's shots.
http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-photo-highlights/fight-night-in-the-cage-1-photo-highlights.html

It featured a packaged card, full of action. It also had a UFC veteran on there. Most of you won't know the name Razak Al Hassan, but you'll know that Steve Cantwell broke someone's arm at UFC Fight for the troops. Hassan is that someone. I have no idea how someone can pack so much muscle into a frame at that weight. The guy is huge in person. It's crazy. He fought Rob Wince, and battered him. It was a completely one sided fight. Hassan had him in the clinch and it was knees from there. At some point Rob Wince dislocated his shoulder, and if I had to guess fractured his collar bone as well. I have been on the receiving end of many sports injuries and been around when others have received them. A lump on the collar bone, after we know the shoulder is back in socket is typically a fractured collar bone, or the little tendon/ligament (not sure what it is technically, btu I know it's there) is torn. Needless to say, it's a painfull injury. Rob Wince, to his credit fought for at least a minute after receiving it, and tried his best. It was only after he couldn't continue that the ref stopped it.

Both men have huge hearts, because I watched Al Hassan have his arm broken on live TV. Then I watched Wince receive a terrible injury in person. I'll tell you what, both men are as tough as nails.

Here's the write up on the fight card of the evening,
http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-results/fight-night-in-the-cage-1-quick-results-updated-live.html

Like I said, I'll link the gallery on their website once there's a permanent home for it. Until then, you can view the photos here,
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/Locked-In-the-Cage-91010/13725032_Yasqv

I photographed Valley Fight League River Valley Rumble as a contract photographer for the promoter. I'm their official photographer, so I do I'd say nearly 95% of their shows. Sometimes I have a date that doesn't work out, or is just too far away.

This gallery is uploaded, and available for purchase on my website.
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/VFL-MMA-RVR-9112010/13751108_gJ3jp

Here is a write up I did for mid atlantic on the event. The editor cuts them down a bit, so if your fight didn't make it, I am sorry. I did write about you, but Due to space constraints the editor likes to keep them around 1000 words.
http://uscombatsports.com/midatlantic/mid-atlantic-combat-sports/mid-atlantic/event-results/vfl-27-river-valley-rumble-bout-highlights.html

Schedule your senior portraits soon folks! I'm booking up fast!

Talk to you soon!

Just got back in from Locked in a Cage MMA, gearing up for VFL MMA

2010-09-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to take a minute to say, we should all remember and honor those who lost their lives in the Sept 11 attacks. We should also honor and remember any and every soldier who has fought, lived and died for this country. Thank a vet, it's the least we can do.

I just got back in the door from Locked in the Cage (not sure if it's locked in A or in THE cage, but it's locked in something lol). I shot this as a joint assignment for a fast growing MMA website, and also as a freelancer. I'll have links to the photographs on my site, on the MMA site along with links to the review shortly.

My main capacity with Matcombatsports.com is as a photographer, but I've also done articles and gym profiles for them. This evening, as I'm photographing mma/boxing event River Valley Rumble, I'll be functioning as a quick results writer, and photographer.

Anyway, I've got a lot of work to do...the downside of being freelance, is that you've got to process your own images. I don't have the luxury of a photo editor :)...well I do...Me! I'll get these processed hopefully before I'm out of the door for tonights event.

Alright, here's a few quick samples.

Aon, fall sessions, Justin Filer/Genesis MMA

2010-09-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm a procrastinator when it comes to this blog. I'll get busy doing work in the house, or on photographs and I'll tell myself "I'll type the blog tonight". Then tomorrow comes. So then I'll get an e-mail, "when are you posting a new blog?". Well...haha, here it is! Sorry for the delay, and I'm going to do my best to not take so long.

Fall senior session season is FAST closing in! Reserve your spot today! I'll be attending cage fights on quite a few nights (as a photographer). Sept 10th, Sept 11th, Oct 23rd, Nov 13. Fight dates are filling up fast too! If you're thinking of booking a photographer for your wedding, do it soon! Dates are reserved on a first come, first serve basis.

I stopped into the newest MMA school in town (and as far as I know, the ONLY one in the are with a cage...the next closest is...their school in Richland!) Genesis MMA/Go Time Sports Performance. Grabbed a few photographs with one of their many instructors, Justin Filer.

I also photographed another AON wrestling event last evening. I'll have the photographs on the site before too long. Here's a few samples to get ya going.

I'll be doing another gym profile for Matcombatsports.com here soon in the next few weeks, so look for that too.

A cool photo of Justin goofin' off :)

Just back from vacation, quick post!

2010-08-23T14:45:00.001-07:00

I haven’t posted in awhile. I usually try to post two times a week with the goings on and some recent photographs from a shoot. However, I just had a family vacation in a place I will call Paradise. Growing up, I didn’t really go on family vacations unless I went with a friend that did. As an “adult” I had never been to the Ocean. Well I had…but there’s an interesting back story to that. I went to San Francisco in 2004. Now to someone who even thinks about this for 30 seconds will figure this out, but for those of us who were from PA and really didn’t go out of the 5 closest states much….California is almost all of the West coast. So when you think Cali, you think about these sandy beaches, babes in bikinis (or guys on surf boards for our ladies that read). Well San Francisco is not that. It is like PA. They get the 4 seasons. The reader’s digest version of the story is, though I got to go to the ocean and skip stones in it…swimming in it didn’t happen on the West coast.

When I was younger I went to Cape May and places like that with friends, but my family and I never went on a family vacation to the beach. Not a big deal, but there’s a reason I stress this. When you see something so alien to you, it either amazes you or makes you very uninterested.

My beautiful wife and I went to Florida, with my Sister-in-law, Mother-in-law and father-in-law. So firstly I’ve got to give a big THANK YOU to my family. The trip was wonderful and I appreciate the opportunity that you’ve given me to see Cape Canaveral, and Cocoa Beach.

Now if you’re reading my blog you’re doing it probably because you are either a fan of my photography page, you’re looking into photography OR you’re a friend of mine that knows I am a photographer. So naturally I pack up a gear bag (or in my case, a hard case…funny story, Pelican makes my cases. I’ve never seen a real life pelican…then I did!) I have a Pelican that is the largest you can take as a carry on, on an airplane. So I load this thing up with everything I think I’ll need.

I ended up only taking out one camera and one lens at any time. I did bring a flash with me, but I never had my wife or my sister in law take it out of their purse (thanks for helping me!)

The problem with this is when you’re in an air conditioned place, and you go into a high heat high humidity place you can damage your equipment if you don’t take care. Of course I did, and I use high quality rechargeable dessicants in all of my packs, but that’s not the point. I didn’t want to ruin anything and I used my cell phone to record a lot of cool moments. Though on the last day/night we were there, my wife and I got to go watch a sunrise. I can honestly say I’d never watched a sunrise before, let alone tried to photograph one! It was truly beautiful, even if that damn cloud bank wouldn’t get out of the way.

So I walk around all of these places, play in the ocean and meet these amazing people. I was in absolute heaven. I didn’t have to worry about working on anything except my tan (or my SPF 85 (yeah not kidding) protection for my tan!. I drank Corona Light, and ate Cheesecake or Ice Cream OR BOTH every day. I had some great food and some poor food.

A few people I met, one man was 83 years old. He didn’t look it. He arrived in America in Connecticut in 1968. He was 40 then. He was a heavy crane operator and ended up working on several buildings in the USA. I believe he said Sears Towers and the WTC. Before that, he was a 14 year old boy holding a rifle waiting for the Germans to invade Great Britain. He was in the British Army (I believe he said he was a Captain). Now he lives in Florida, and owns a company with his friend. They do nuclear water filtration.

I met another young man, who is a lawyer for the US Air Force. He moved there from NJ. He is 28 years old and when I asked him if he liked it there he said that he’s 2 blocks from the beach…how can’t you like it?

I seen cruise ships in person, and they are so huge! I went in the Atlantic Ocean over my head (perhaps 1 foot over my head?) and there were dolphins swimming by me. I didn’t know they were, and something swam an hit my legs that was like rubber. I freaked and swam to shore. My wife and sister-in-law told me that I was so close to the dolphins that they think it was a dolphin!

I’m terrified of flying. I had to have my Dr. prescribe me a few valium so I wouldn’t have a panic attack on the air plane. I’m sitting there reading all of this crap about how my seat can be used as a floatation device. All I could think was that if I hurt myself doing a belly flop in a pool…imagine the damage from falling 30,000 feet from the air. Then I would tell myself that the pilot would set us down as nice as he could, but then I got to thinking when we were flying through cloud banks, that what if another damn plane hit us!

I’ve got a few events coming up that I’ll be photographing, so I’ll have those photos when I shoot them. I just upgraded to the newest photoshop, CS5. However, it hasn’t arrived yet. I did a fresh install of windows 7 64bit on my computer, and don’t want to install my old version of photoshop just a few days before my new one arrives. I also upgraded to the new Adobe Lightroom 3. I had 2.5/6 before, but never used it.

So along with getting a new software to learn some new changes with, I’ll be learning to use the LR3 software, which I’m completely unfamiliar with it.

What this means is after I get my copy of CS5 (should’ve been here today), I’ll begin processing a few Florida photographs and posting them. Until then, here’s just a few snaps to get us started. They aren’t indicative of the trip, just something to look at until I post again.

Also, if you go to my face book page and check out the mobile uploads section, you’ll be able to see some that I snapped with my cellphone.

Stay posted, lots of new things are going to come from Rob Lynn photography. I hope you enjoy reading my blog, and will continue to do so. I find a lot of blogs are stale because they don’t say anything about the person behind it. I love meeting people and exchanging stories, so I focus mine not only on photography but also on something that you can walk away from and feel like you have something worth talking about.

Check out the website for more information,

www.roblynn.org

From there you can navigate to my face book pages, and fan pages. Please send me a request, as I’m often offering specials on FB that I don’t advertise on the website.

Let me introduce you to...

2010-08-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that I train in Judo and Ju Jitsu. My training in these arts, my love of MMA, and me being a professional photographer naturally lead to photographing MMA events.

In my experience, I've been exposed to many fighters. One of which I'd like to introduce you to is Charlie Brenneman. Charlie is a Holidaysburg PA native, a pros vs joes season winner, an outstanding wrestler, an educator and a hell of a human being. What he is also is a UFC MMA fighter. MMA is mixed martial arts. A lot of people in their ignorance don't realize that MMA is a sport and not "human cock fighting".

It combines all martial arts, Judo, Ju Jitsu, Karate, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Sombo and the like under a unified rules match and a fighter pits his skills against another.

Charlie Brenneman is an elite MMA fighter. Sporting a record of 12 wins and 1 loss, Charlie is a UFC fighter. I've had the pleasure of photographing him in his MMA infancy at several events. I've got to meet Charlie several times, and can tell you he's a great guy.

Some of you know that I do photography for submission to different websites. I also write articles for a well known MMA site. Well something happened recently. I interviewed Charlie Brenneman, and submitted the interview to a guy named Peter. He's an editor. The article was changed from a Q and A to an editorial. Long story short, things that I asked Charlie weren't represented the way that Charlie and I intended.

I explained to Charlie that it was posted in an edited version and one that I wasn't pleased with. So here, I'm posting THE ORIGINAL interview, the one that I submitted on my website. I also want to take this as my public forum to apologize for the malarke that happened when the interview was changed.

Here's various pictures of Charlie through the years (I've got tons of photographs of Charlie) and the article.

Q: Since your recent victory inside the UFC octagon, what have you been up to?

A:I took a few days off, but then got right back into the gym. I try to maintain steady training. You never know when you'll get an opportunity.

Q: Your scheduled to fight at UFC 117 August 7, in California. Taking a look at that card, it is stacked! How does it feel to fight on a card with so many big names, and how does it feel to see the growth from fighting in the smaller shows to making it in the big-time?

A:I couldn't have picked a better card to be on. It's a cool thing, going from being a fan of these guys, to being a coworker. I'm being given a huge opportunity by the UFC, and I'm going to make the most of it.

Q: Your current opponent is Johnny Hendricks. What are your thoughts on Hendricks?
A:I love the matchup. I really didn't see it coming, but I have zero complaints.

Q: From what I understand, there’s some history between you two from both of your wrestling days. If this is true, how does it feel to get a fight against him?

A:Was this one that you went looking for, or were just presented with? He actually beat me in the round of 12 at NCAA's my senior year. I hold no hard feelings. It was a different time, in a different sport. I'm looking at this from strictly a fighting point of view, and career wise, it's a great situation. We were presented the matchup, and we jumped on it.

Q: When you have someone that has such a great wrestling pedigree, and is strong where you are strong, what kind of training do you mix into your program?

A:I train daily to be a great fighter. I've mixed my wrestling in well w/ my other skills. I'm obviously working on my hands, and I really feel conditioning and standup will be the most important factors in this fight.

Q: Where is/are your training camp(s) for this fight?

A:I'm training at AMA Fightclub in Whippany, NJ. I may mix it up at a few other gyms a bit, but AMA is my home.

Q: How is the strength program going? I’ve seen the videos and the workouts do not look fun at all.

A: A huge thanks to my strength coach Don Messing (NoLimitsPersoanalTraining.com). He's helped me put on some solid weight, and we're at it four or five times a week in the gym. We do a good job of mixing up weight training, as well as endurance training. And no, they are not fun!

Q: How have the fans been treating you since you signed to the UFC?

A:On a local and regional level, it's been great. I'm lucky to have such loyal, supportive fans. I actually get a good bit of fan mail too, which is pretty cool. On the national scene, I do get noticed here and there, but nothing major. Hopefully come Aug. 7, that will change!

Q:I personally know how popular you are in my area and your name has been spreading this town like wildfire. I think it’s great too, because you’re the kind of guy that helps give a good face to the sport. A lot of folks who haven’t been exposed to the sport think it’s just mush heads beating on each other. They don’t realize that today’s fighters are highly intelligent individuals. How have people been reacting to you since you’ve moved from education to mixed martial arts?

A: First, thank you. Secondly, it's been a good reception. I can remember trying to explain to people why I was leaving my teaching position, and how many blank stares and confused nods I got. I finished up my Master's too at East Stroudsburg Univ. (per the request of my mom), where I also coach wrestling. I just try to be the best version of me on a daily basis, and hopefully that sends out a positive msg.

Q; UFC 117 is host to a great fight card, and one that I’m very excited for. Do you have any picks for the fights of the evening?

A:I'm working that night, so there's only one fight on my mind!

Q: Do you have anything that you would like to say to your fans, or anyone else?

A:Thanks for the continued support. I've come across some great people who have helped me out a great deal, so thank you to those people. Also, I put everything up online via my site (charlie-brenneman.com), blog, facebook, and twitter (SpaniardMMA), so please check them out and spread the word!!!

Q: Do you have any sponsors?

A:I am sponsored during my fights, so please check out my website for the links! Most of my current sponsors are fight by fight. I'm always looking, so feel free to contact me!

Q: Is there anyone that you would like to thank/mention?

A:I would like to thank my strength coach Don Messing (NoLimitsPersonalTraining.com) for the huge gains I've had over the last few months, as well as Dr. Tom Boorujy who helps keep me aligned and ready to go (SingatureWellness.net). And thanks to all of my supporters!!!

Charlie, I want to publicly apologize for the previous version that Peter changed. I didn't know he was going to do that. Good luck on the fight, and I am confident the W is there any way you want it. Be it sub, KO, TKO, or UD.

Intense weekend!

2010-08-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Saturday specifically. I photographed a wedding an hour away for a lovely young couple, and then photographed VFL MMA's 4th installment of the Broad Avenue Brawlers at the Jaffa Mosque. Same night, 2 events that you would normally photograph on their own.

Here's the simple back story. The couple needed a last minute photographer because their photographer backed out. I had the fight scheduled for about 1/2 a year now, and it worked out perfect that the couple's wedding was earlier in the day.

Here are a few samples from the weekend. This blog will be sort of short, because I've got a ton of wedding photographs to process.

Here's the quick results from the fights,

Jake Parks Defeated Chad Murawski Via UD.
Ryan Glunt defeated Doug Haupt via Rd 2 arm Bar.
Johnny Waliko defeated Gabriel (no idea on last name) UD.
Joshua Jaskins ddefeated Mike Stuck via choke Rd 1.
Vitautas Bucevicius defeated Eric Delaini via UD.
Christian DeHaas defeated Curtis Link via UD.
Chris Roman defeated Troy Bush via Ref Stoppage Rd 1.
Brett Shoenfelt defeated Mike Kunowsky via UD.
Coy Maloy Defeated Chauncey Gnagey via RNChoke Rd1.
Justin Head defeated Andrew Ricketts via Triangle choke.
Travis Clark defeated Tenyeh Dixon via Ref Stoppage Rd1
Frank Armstrong defeated Tige McAfoos via 2nd Rd Choke
Richard Brooks defeated Travis Glass Rd 1 Choke.
Justin Finnegan defeated Anthony Ford Rd 1 Choke.
Bret Thomas defeated Travis Wineland R 1 Armbar.
Elijah Garshnick defeated Bruce Monroe Rd 3 with an arm bar.

UFC Fighter Charlie Brenneman who fights Johnny Hendricks this weekend was in the crowd and a special guest at the fights. Charlie is a Hollidaysburg native, and a really down to Earth cool guy. It's been a pleasure as a fan of MMA to watch his rise in MMA and his ascension to the UFC. Congrats and good luck Charlie! Look forward to a Q and A, UNEDITED *(unlike the version that appeared on matcombatsports.com) in the next few days.

Also included in this batch of photos are some prelims from the wedding. I can't wait to present the new Mr and Mrs Erstgaard with their wonderful photographs!

Talk to you guys soon!

In the first fight photograph, Bruce Monroe submits to an armbar from kesa gatame applied by Elijah Garshnick. In the second fight photograph local up and comer Justin Finnegan applies a slick and very tight guillotine choke.

In our first wedding photograph, we've got the ceremony then the ,bride and groom together (in a fun photo!) and one of the groom in the church.
For the full fight gallery, go to http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Mixed-Martial-Arts/VFL-MMA-BAB4-7312010/13156999_2eB8b#954490534_WWPw

2010 Print comp photographs

2010-07-19T17:56:00.001-07:00

I'm finally getting around to uploading photographs I entered in the ABCPS 2010 print competition to their website. There were 5 photographs entered by myself, and 5 came back with ribbons. I will post those photographs, and a brief description of each.
I will post those photographs, and a brief description of each. This photograph placed in the Portrait section. It is called Olivia and is after a senior session I photographed last year. This is a black and white conversion I seen in the making as I was photographing it. The young lady is wearing a blue shirt, and in leaves in the fall. Naturally you would think that her red hair, the autumn colors and her blue shirt would look great in contrast? They do, the color image looks fantastic, but I like the connection in the black and white conversion.

This photograph really surprised me in its placement. I had only entered it because I wanted to put a photograph in the animal category (you're only allowed 2 photographs per category, and 5 photographs total). If it was up to me, I'd put 5 photographs between the people and still life sections. So I put this in thinking, I just liked how this black/white conversion turned out. My wife and I went to the zoo on a photography expedition :) and when you photograph in black and white at least in my opinion, you have to think in CONTRAST. Not every photograph is a simple desaturate and looks good black and white. This is one I knew when I pressed the shutter that it would look great b/w.
This is my take on a classic by Ansel Adams. It is also up to this point one of my favorite photographs that I have created. The one by Adams is called "the rose". Mine is of the same title, since it is a tribute and emulation of Ansel's masterful work. I'm not Ansel, and not saying I am. I am saying I am proud of this photograph.

This is a tiger lily that my wife bought me. I know, that doesn't sound right does it? My wife knows I love to photograph flowers, and maybe it was a hint to me that I haven't treated her to a floral delight in awhile. Speaking of, I think I need to pick her up some nice flowers. She'll get some great photographs from them. The customers will be happy, my wife will be happy and I'll enjoy creating the images. Win, win, and win!

I will be in attendance as the professional photographer on site for VFL MMA Broad Avenue Brawlers on July 31st. I will also be photographing a wedding that same day, filling in for a last minute drop out photographer. Can't wait to create great images of that day! It's going to be a long, but severely rewarding day. I get the chance to fix the wrong another photographer did to a couple dropping out just WEEKS before their wedding, and I get to photograph a premier MMA event in my home town. Got to love it!

The last competition photograph, I'm having trouble hosting on my blog. She is Dr. Hutzel and is featured on my website. For whatever reason, I can upload the photograph to whatever website, but it's coming up corrupted on my blog. So you only get to see 4 of the 5.

Contact today for great rates. Mention this blog post and I'll give you 5% off of your print order! Mention this and the facebook fan page, and I'll make it 10% off of your print order!

Thanks!

www.roblynn.org

VFL MMA Mason Dixon Three

2010-07-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

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

Busy weekend coming up! VFL MMA in Chambersburg

2010-07-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. It's been a few days since the last post, and I wanted to post a few new photographs and some information on the goings on.

This weekend, I'll be photographing VFL MMA in Chambersburg PA on Friday. On Saturday AON Wrestling at the YPPC center in Ebensburg PA, and then a family reunion on Sunday. Busy busy!

Please check out http://www.vflmma.com/index4f.htm for more information on the shows.

As a full service photographer, I photograph everything. This means if I am booked to do a wedding, I photograph that. Same goes for still life photography, or sporting events. Of course every photographer has certain areas that they enjoy more than others. If they tell you differently, they are lying. See, I'm always happy with a camera in my hand. However, I'm most happy photographing people. This doesn't mean I don't do other assignments.

Something I enjoy VERY much is making photographs of flowers. When I buy my wife flowers, I love photographing them. For me, I like to focus on the FLOWER itself. The stems generally don't do anything for me. I like the background simple, and understated.

Now I usually go understated background for flowers, however one photograph I attempted my take at the classic "Rose on Driftwood" by Ansel Adams. It has to be my favorite photograph. Which is interesting, because my favorite photography subjects are people. I like the back story around it too. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Basically Ansel's mom gave him a rose (pink) when he moved into his apartment. He wanted to photograph it and had no idea what to use as the "background" so he used this piece of driftwood. I had my own "driftwood" with the help of old motor oil, running it over, hosing it off, scuffing it up. Basically doing in a week to it what was probably months of soaking in Adams' case.

The other three photographs I'm featuring here are three from a recent bouquet I bought for my wife. All of these photographs will be featured for sale here shortly on my website. Please have a look. www.roblynn.org If you're interested in package deals (multiple prints) I do offer special discounts on large prints ordered in bulk. PLease contact for details.

Without further Adieu,

Also! Senior session dates are filling up fast! Contact now for your session! I've got great specials all summer long!

Rob Lynn
www.roblynn.org

On a Golf Course? 4th of July?

2010-07-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with one of my friends, Dale, who is an avid golfer. He was saying about how beautiful the course was and that I should bring up some equipment sometime. We weren't thinking anything of it, so I packed light. A full-frame dSLR with an ultra wide angle zoom (16-35mm), and a cropped sensor dSLR with a normal zoom (24-70mm). I almost wasn't even going to bring two cameras. I figured I'd get the feel of the area, and then start making some images.

Now understand, this wasn't a client's wishes or an assignment. This was at 3PM, he says we should go, at 5 we were there. I would have researched this MUCH more if I was on assignment, scoped out the place beforehand. Got an idea of the best times to go up, so on so forth.

This is what I like though, a challenge. I so set up a challenge for myself.

Make a few images of scenery. Make a few images that showcase the golf course, and that it IS indeed a golf course. See, if you omit the pins, and fairways, you could almost just think that a golf course is hundreds of acres of well kept ground. It would seem to me, that good golf course photographs would showcase a little of everything. The greenery, the skies, the pins (flags), the wide open expanses, the tight greens, and any landscape features. I would also think that it should be a journey that a golfer would be familiar with, and that a viewer could relate to.

If it's an image of the scenery, and not the course okay, who cares if the viewer can go "that's a country club!", but if we're show casing that it's a golf course, I want even an uneducated viewer to be able to see that it's a golf course. I want an experienced golfer who may have played the course to be able to look and say "Oh, he was probably here, or there making this photograph, probably where one well placed drive would land".

I met some really nice people on the course, and I am hoping to make a return to the course. Especially now since I've done the "homework" by going around the 18 holes of the course. I'd like to get there a few times this summer, and possibly again in the fall. Following the winter, I'd like to go up in the spring as well.

I'm very critical of my work, and while I am pleased with the photographs, looking back at them I would liked to have been there in the early morning, or evening. When we were there, we had harsh light to deal with. However, even in face of all of the obstacles (I had never photographed specifically a golf course before, high/bright/harsh sun).
Also this weekend is the fourth of July weekend. This is a very important holiday in American history. This is the first time I've repeated an image in a blog, but this is definitely worth it. This image was taken out the VA home in Altoona PA.

Here's just a sample of the golf course images. Please be sure to check my website to see the finished products.

AON Thunder in the Valley, the portrait photographer who is part action photographer.

2010-06-27T16:10:00.001-07:00

The reason behind the AON owners picking me up to do their photographs aside from me being awesome (okay, I had to do that) they knew I had experience where quite a few people don't. Action. Not field sports, not puck, or wheel or ball. Specifically combat sports. Considering I'm the guy that promoters are calling for combat sporting events, I'm guessing that I'm probably one of the more experienced in this field in my area.

I am not saying I'm the most experienced guy out there at everything. I'm specifically saying that regarding the number of combat sporting events I've photographed, save for maybe a newspaper photographer I've probably photographed more of it.

Interestingly enough, I had NEVER photographed professional wrestling before. Some folks call it studio wrestling, because they consider "staged wrestling" to be a slap in the face of Greco/Folkstyle/Freestyle (am I forgetting any?) wrestling. I can understand their grief a little bit, but at the same time I think most people understand that there's a huge difference.

The other difference being is, the professional is expected to get more out of their equipment than someone else. For instance, I liken the precision of good camera technique, to that of shooting a firearm. There's good posture, position of the elbows, support of the equipment et cetera. If you aim incorrectly, the photograph is off. Sometimes just an inch on paper is enough to ruin a composition.

While there will never cease to be luck involved in action sports photography (for instance when the home run record of (brain fart of who) was photographed 3 Canon EOS 1DMark 3 cameras each with I believe a Canon 400 f/2.8L IS lens on them, and a tripod rigged to hold the weight of all of this stuff (we're talking probably 2 grand in rigging alone without camera and lens) there is also a level of skill involved. In the above example, the photographer tried to take luck out of the equation. Pretty much if he shot 100 frames in the 1 second that it was going to happen, he would get a good shot.

So what's the other variable? Skill. A professional being able to take their camera and get what they want out of it. Not luck into it (which still doesn't hurt), but be able to plan into it. That's the mark.

What does this have to do with anything? Well...I'm a photographer. I will photograph anything. Every photographer has an area that they enjoy the most. For me, it is portraiture. One of the reasons I enjoy it so much, is because of the personal connection that I get to make with the client/subject. If I stick a camera in your face, you immediately become a little bit apprehensive. Maybe not a professional model or someone else who just eats it up and is a ham for the camera. Most people though are self conscious about it. So that's where I come in. I have to get you to trust me. Not only do I have to get you to trust me, I have to get you to open up to me. I'm not saying that I need your innermost secrets. I get you to understand that, I, am there to make you look great. That I'm going to give you the best product that I professionally can.

Then we get a connection. Once we connect with each other, we start making great photographs. I'm not saying that we're going out to dinner and we're going to hang out for weeks on end to get this photograph. It may just be a few minutes of conversation during set-up. It may be a few "warm up" photographs, and even me showing you the camera's results. There's a whole world of techniques used by the portrait photographer, and many books written on it. For me, it's an interaction with people. Yeah, I love the photographs. I also love the connection we make, and meeting the people I photograph.

So now I'm guessing you're asking "what does THIS have to do with that?". What does portraiture have to do with combat sports?

To me, it has a lot to do with it. While I don't always get a connection with the fighter/athlete, the two people or however many people in the ring/cage/box have a connection and I'm trusted to show that connection. It also presents an interesting opportunity to me. Some of the best, classic portraits are the ones lit with 1, 2 or 3 lights. Just main/fill/kicker, or even main/kicker, or main/fill or just MAIN! There's also photographs just taken out in the ambient light that do it.

See there's a few schools of thought on what makes a great portrait. In my opinion they are expression, sharpness, pose, lighting. The expression sells the portrait. Period. The best expression can make a poorly lit photograph great. See there's like no "wrong" lighting patterns per se... there's ones that don't look as good as others.

I promise I'm getting to a point.

Well for me, even though I'm photographing people either punching each other in the face, or "pretend" slamming each other or in the instance of "sport" sports photography(ball, wheel, puck)playing a game...I'm also looking for candid moments. These examples I present are not the best photographs in the world, and they may not even be above average. What they are to me is a candid moment. Maybe they were thinking about the fans, or what was going to happen later that night, or maybe even what they were going to buy at the store. I don't know, but that's the connection I'm talking about. The viewer can connect with the subject of the photograph.

Now I wouldn't post about a wrestling event, and not show some of the wrestling that took place...I'm not that cruel to my readers!

Shooting outdoors posing a whole new set of problems for the photographer, than indoors. See, typically the #1 complaint you're going to hear from an action photographer is "I need more light to work with". High ISO is getting much better in cameras in terms of digital noise (grain in the photograph), but the issue then becomes quality control...who the hell is printing the image and on what paper? What constraints do their bosses put on them? What about their equipment? What tolerances do they have to be within? See, I know that I can shoot at X value and push it Y stops in post processing when printing with my lab. I also know that my lab charges much more than a walgreens or costco or anywhere that prints pictures cheaply. There's a few reasons for it, but I can sum it up in one word, quality. The quality of the product is much higher. Anyway, back on topic. Though high ISO has gotten better in cameras, we want MORE light on our subjects.

Alright, so I shot this in daylight...what is the problem now? Ever notice that when you get your picture taken (I don't like to say take pictures, I like to say I make pictures) by a professional that they use lights and modifiers on those lights, like soft boxes or umbrellas? That is to change the QUALITY of the light, and give them CONTROL over it.

Give me control over my light and I create great images every click of the shutter. Give me the Sun moving in and out of cloud cover coming from high above and hard over head...I'll give you photographs of people looking with shadows in their eyes, harsh highlights and dark shadows. That's just the nature of the beast. To get around it, we can use fill flash but if you're shooting in varying conditions adding another variable flash to it, you're getting more of a chance of blowing the exposure.

So we make an executive decision, do we expose for the sky, or do we expose for the subject? One gives us a subject that's too dark to see detail. Another gives us a well lit subject with a sky that is blown to white on paper.

Well, you have to decide what is important to the photograph. In the case of the wrestlers, it's the wrestler. Simple. You blow out the highlights and forget about them and expose for the subject.

Can we keep our camera in manual mode for this? Absolutely not. With the clouds moving in and out of the sun very rapidly, and our exposure going from 1/5000 at ISO 400, to 1/640 at ISO 400, we set the camera to Aperture priority (meaning we tell the camera, listen this is what aperture you're going to shoot at, adjust shutter speed accordingly), and then we dial in a "close" amount of exposure compensation. Something that gets the exposure in the correct ball park. If we have to bring it back .5 stop, that's okay.

Then we can set our camera to spot meter the subject, that way if we grab the sky the camera doesn't give us a bull crap exposure reading. Now, here's where it gets tricky. If we spot meter the camera, and put it on something BLACK it'll try and brighten it too much, and if we put it on something WHITE it'll more than likely underexpose it. The nature of our camera's meter is to make EVERYTHING GRAY! In life, the camera sees everything as middle gray. White? Make it gray! Black? Make it gray! Our camera is inherently stupid. Well not really. It's smart at making things gray, and it does that well. The thing is, sometimes you have to take over for the camera and tell it what to do.

There's a few more factors that are an issue in photography outdoors. You know how lenses have those plastic things on the end? That's a lens hood. It keeps flare from bouncing around the 234874 glass elements in the lens and giving you crazy shapes/colors in an image. There's times that we try and get lens flare, and when done right and NOT OVERDONE (think Zack Wylde's squeals on the guitar...definitely overdone. Yeah Zack, I'm telling you I don't need to hear it 497 times in one song and in every song) it can be cool.

Other times, it just downright ruins a photograph and you don't know it until it's too late to recreate OR it was a once in a life time event that just isn't happening again. For instance, one burst of images I squeezed off had Randy "Ring Master" throwing Black Lightning through a piece of plywood in the bed of a truck. 10 shots in the burst. 9 ruined. Thankfully, there's a good one that was not ruined.

The event was quite great. There was a good bit of butt-kickery going on. I'll post a full gallery shortly. Please follow me on facebook, and let me know your thoughts. I try to post a blog at least 2x a week. Up and coming photographers, I'm not above answering some questions but I'm a professional photographer. I'm not an educator. If you follow my blog, you'll get a lot of tips and tricks. I learn by doing and musing about what I'm going to do. So read, do. Read. Do. Read. Do. Or See...Do!

FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Altoona-PA/Rob-Lynn-Photography/116188948398729?ref=sgm

WEBSITE

www.RobLynn.org

Please don't mistake the title. I am still your award winning full service photographer. I cover portraits, events, weddings, sports, insurance photographs/inventories and real estate. If you have a photography need, I can take care of it.

2 years? and who is Rob Lynn?

2010-06-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

I try not to bring up personal life too much on my blog, as it's only partially relevant to my photography. I mean it is relevant to know who I am and what I'm about, true? However, stuff like my wedding anniversary and the like just really could be left out? Well not today! On Monday June 21st, my wife and I will have been married two years! It's been sweet, and she does a lot for me and helping my business grow. For instance the many hours I'm photographing events far away, or editing photographs and I'm away from her, she puts up with all of it and helps me with it too. She's just great.

Well little does she know that right now in the refrigerator there's a dozen roses in there waiting for her to find them! Hah! Take that wife-o-matic, sneak attack roses!

The other thing is, I'm not real fond of photographs of myself. It's not that I do not feel I am photogenic, but it's more a long the lines of how do I see myself? I see myself as serious, fun loving, caring, unique, creative, you see what I mean? I'm all over the map. I'm a husband, a photographer, a student of Ju-Jitsu, I'm a hard worker, I'm a musician, I want to be a father. Can you see fitting all of that into a photograph?

So I don't have really any professional photographs of me, and not even a lot of casual photos. Like there's the wedding and the engagement photographs but not really much else. Heck, I've played music all over the state and I have maybe 10 photographs of me playing out. Most from crappy digital cameras or cell phone cameras, and not really worth posting.

Then there's the snapshots of me with different MMA fighters or ring-card girls. I always end up putting on a stupid face or giving this STUPID thumbs up with my hands.

I was anxious to plan just a weekend of wife and I and we were driving around. Well there's this sign on the Yamato. Basically the best place to get Asian food in town. I seen it and though, wouldn't it be funny to take a photograph of me trying to snatch this sushi out of this picture's hand. So that's what I did. I handed off a camera to the wife and said take a snapshot of this.

It's not a professional portrait, just a picture of me being a goof. What it does though is puts a face behind the brand (for better or worse) of mine. What I think it does is it shows someone acting the way anyone else does. Alive.

At the end of the day, that's what we're capturing in our photographs. Life.

I'm going to go have some lunch with my wife, but now at least there's a face to the name for you :) And somehow, I STILL MANAGED TO PUT ON A STUPID FACE! haha.

Rob

Another AON event, and a senior session

2010-06-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

I had a great portrait session with Rob. He is a recent graduate and his father just wanted some classic shots of his boy. This is what I love doing is making photographs of people. I admittedly had an advantage as I had photographed Rob's girlfriend for her senior portraits. I didn't have to break down a "barrier' with the client to build trust. He already knew that if I have the camera in hand, he was getting professional results. I made the photos at a local park, and if you're a gear junky (I get a lot of photographers reading this) I shot it with a bunch of f/2.8 zoom lenses and off camera light.I was happy to be a photographer as part of the AON Triple Threat Weekend! It sadly turned into a double threat though, as some malarke happened at Mansion Park. I am not 210% on the semantics of the story, but this much I do know.

AON was to put on a free show Friday at Mansion Park as part of the relay for life. This was a heavily publicized event, with quite a bit of people looking to attend.

Athletic Director on the day of (and if I understand correctly, hours before the event) says no ring to be set up.

Wrestlers who traveled didn't get to wrestle. People who bought advertising were let down. The fans were let down. Trust me though, I don't think anyone was hurting as bad as Jason, Mike and all of the AON crew. I can personally tell you they really felt like crap and were not only irritated by the situation, but upset they didn't get to perform for the fans. These guys put on a great show and really work hard at it.

Okay, so what about the rest of the triple threat weekend? The event at Father Kelly Hall went on without a hiccup, and in so far as I know the event at the Pasquerilla center in Johnstown went down just fine. I was only able to make the Saturday show in Altoona.

A full gallery can be seen on my website, at http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Entertainment/AON-Wrestling-6-12-10/12537172_vwiLA#899416792_K2ACX

I'm still accepting applications for TFCD sessions! Please submit your application! The response has been great!

I had to send 2 cameras to Canon. It's like sending a kid off on a sleep over. Canon service is very fast, but when you send a few bodies and a few lenses it makes you a little uneasy. I sent 4 items in one box, but I'll get 4 boxes back. That's 4 more chances to get smashed into 1000 pieces :( I'm always a nervous wreck waiting for things to get back to me.
Rob

Go Time Fitness/Genesis MMA Grand Opening Frisbee Todd

2010-06-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a snap of Sam Moore playing frisbee golf. This was taken at the park a few weeks ago.

This is my friend Todd. If we're friends and we're hanging out, you can look forward to me stuffing a camera in your face. Yes, even professional photographers still make photographs for fun. What I like most about taking photographs of my friends for fun is that there's no pressure. There's no sale to make and there's no parent/client to make happy. You know all of those "fun" photographs you take and if they look technically improper, but still look neat they are okay? They are out for us sadly. So we've got to get our friend's picture before they lose interest :( Todd is pretty cool. He's shy and laid back, but at the same time a ton of fun and has a neat personality. I'm very happy that he's let me make his photograph more than once.

I had the chance to catch the grand opening of Go Time Fitness and Genesis MMA's new location last weekend. It's been a busy weekend. Friday I was in Lancaster for CPWC6 (MMA action) and then Saturday to the event. This week, there's senior portraits, and 2 wrestling events!

The Genesis team is headed by Justin Filer and Jeremy Drenning. They have a good camp of people to train with and I suggest them highly. A full fitness facility, also with a full sized cage. Pretty cool stuff. I'm not sure if there's a website yet, but I'll post one as soon as I find it.

Also on site was Charlie Brenneman UFC Veteran, making a guest appearance. Very cool. Let's wish Charlie Brenenman the best of luck in his upcoming UFC bout against Johnny Hendricks!

CPWC 6 MMA Fighting in Lancaster Birthday. TFCD.Genesis MMA!

2010-06-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

OKay, quite a bit has been going on here and I've been staying very active. I just recovered from a long working weekend. On Friday I went to Lancaster to represent Matcombatsports.com as a staff photographer photographing the event at the Lancaster convention center. Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge 6. It's a long title, and I get tired half way through saying it, BUT it was a great show. Truthfully I'll speak honestly. I didn't think much about a card of 10 amateur bouts and 3 pro bouts, or almost a 4 hour drive or the drive home. Even some initial hiccups with the promoter and I didn't make me happy. Basically he didn't realize I was going to be there. Understandably he was upset. I can't blame him. Fight promoters have a lot of stuff going on, ESPECIALLY before a fight show is going to take place. The last thing they want is surprises.

However, I'm going to say this in a separate sentence so it doesn't get lost being glossed over.

CPWC is a CLASS ACT MMA promotion. The fighters wanted to fight and were entertaining. The promoter puts on an excellent show, and I look forward to photographing more of them. Mark, thank you for having me at your show and I hope that I, matcombatsports.com and Ted Giantini can get you some added exposure to the show. Excellent show Mark, and I can't say enough good things about it. Also, special mention for your ring lights. A TRUE PROFESSIONAL set up and wow, it made viewing the show so great.

Again, MARK THANK YOU!!!

OKay, about the show? 13 fights in one night! Excellent! 10 Am bouts, 3 Pro bouts. 6 ring girls! Can't beat it with a stick! AND! Dan Severn was a special guest! Also, a familiar face in UFC Veteran referee Dan Miragliotta. Awesome night indeed.

Juan Vasquez defeated Collin Sharpe by split decision.

Shea Banks defeated David Garpstas by submission at 1:23 of round three.

William Leibensberger defeated Phil Meck by submission at 1:45 of round three.

Joshua Prall defeated Mike Lishinski by split decision.

John Andel defeated Mike Pape by split decision.

Troy Jensen defeated Jeff Beck by unanimous decision.

Eric Albright defeated Spenser Richard by unanimous decision.

Tom Anderton defeated Darnell Hayes by knockout at 50 seconds in round one.

Jordan Hartman defeated Craig Odeair by majority decision.

Pro Bouts:

Biff Walizer defeated Thomas Adhren by unanimous decision.

Duane Bastress defeated Roger Minton by TKO at 51 seconds of round one.

Justin Scott defeated Denis Hernandez by unanimous decision.

Okay, here is a link to the "photo highlights" used by matcombatsports.com

The full gallery can be seen on my website, and will be uploaded to matcombatsports.com shortly

My 28th birthday is today, and this weekend I got to spend some much needed time with friends and my wife. Sometimes, you just need some wife and you time. I am so grateful that Courtney is in my life. I try and keep personal business off of the blog and site, but I just want to say that without her, I wouldn't be the man, and photographer I am today. She is wonderful and I can't say enough good about her (it does help I smell this awesome dinner she is cooking...did I mention she's an awesome cook?).

Go Time Productions and Genesis MMA team opened a new place too! Justin Filer, and Jeremy Drenning have teamed up with a ton of great coaches (can't remember guy with the knee braces name, but he remembers me so I feel like crap for having a brain fart) Castalucci (sorry if I spelled it wrong!) Justin Filer, Jeremy Drenning, and Tommy Wilt.

Great location on Pound Lane (former lamb's way building/ye olde hobby shoppe). Check it out if you get a chance. Look for a gym profile for them on matcombatsports.com in the near future!

ANOTHER THING!

I'm still accepting TFCD applications! The applications are pouring in and there is a lot of competition for the spots! PLEASE e-mail me call me to inquire about applying. I am looking forward to weeding these down and picking the winners for June/July!

Lastly!

Dan Severn is the nicest guy on the planet to meet. I hope to meet him again, and I hope he gets 3 fights he really wants. Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, and Ken Shamrock. I would pay to see all of them.

I'll have another post up soon about some photographs I have that just won some competitions.

See ya soon!

TFCD TFDL Wth?

2010-06-02T17:10:00.000-07:00

The headline of this blog would be translated as such

Time for CD Time for Download What the heck?

What does this mean? Quite simply TFCD/TFDL means that a model will have a session photographed by a photographer. The model pays no outward expense to the photographer. The photographer pays no money to the model. The photographer can do as he wishes with the photographs. Sell, lease, advertise. Anything. Also, the model can do the same thing. Sell, lease, advertise. Neither party needs to consult the other, and given whatever specific contract language the parties have, more often than not all that is needed is a model/photographer credit.

Why am I posting about this? Rob Lynn Photography is now accepting applications for TFCD/DL models!

What, a model? These sessions were typically originated for models looking to grow their portfolio, however You do not need to be a model to apply!

Apply? The application process is simple, and painless. All that is asked is
Name, Address, E-mail Address, Age (This is really important for under 18, just to have a parents consent also) any previous modeling experience and if so a sample photo from the session (a link to the photo or a copy e-mailed will suffice), or a sample photograph that is just a snapshot of yourself, it doesn't have to be a professional portrait! That's what we're here for! To give you professional quality portraits. Any background information is good too, just a little about yourself, your interests and what you intend to use your photographs to do (promote your modeling, maybe promote yourself).

Given the value of this (even a free session costs a photographer money) I'm limiting the number of accepted applicants per month. This may change based upon the volume of the business. At peak it may stay at two, during a less busy time may increase as needed.

If you're interested, please use the contact information on my website www.RobLynn.org E-mail, or Call and I'll get the application to you. No one will be considered without application. Given the value of this session, if you're not serious enough to fill out an application then how can I take you seriously enough?

So why are there pictures of birds on this post? Well, that's what I recently photographed! :) I have a lot of new photographs to post on the blog, but figured I'd take a different step and post some bird photographs. The expression is millimeters are expensive couldn't be more true! These sparrows and even the starling that is pictured are small birds. They were maybe 20-30 feet away from me in these photographs. I had to bait them in :)

I'll be at CPWC in Lancaster PA cageside on Friday, photographing the action! I will be attending the grand opening of the Go Time/Genesis MMA fitness center on Saturday morning.

2, possibly 3 AON events on the 11th at Mansion Park, 12th at Father Kelly Hall and the 13th in Johnstown!

Be sure to check them out. These shows are incredibly cheap to get into (Friday is freakin' FREEEEEEEEE) and are a good evening of family fun. Besides that, you'll see my website listed on their fliers! can't beat that!

2010-05-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend is Memorial day weekend (way to go Rob, you're the master of all things obvious) (well someone has to be, hah!).

I recently got My 1D3 back from Canon and wanted to test out the auto focus on it, so I was looking for SOMETHING going on. A baseball, football, soccer game, anything. I couldn't find anything going on. So I ended up going to a section of rail track where I know skate-borders go to. Empty. Another swing and a miss. Well, I figured I already had the equipment with me and I wanted to come up with some photographs for the blog...well! Here I am.

There's quite a bit of action going on in the near future. CPWC6 is taking place in Lancaster on June 4th. I am not sure if I will be there or not yet, it's up in the air. Then there's 2 AON events I'll be attending in Altoona on June 11th and 12th. In July VFL MMA is making their return to Central PA, and I'll be cageside with your photographs from that event as well.

The fodder I've posted here is a little bit different from the usual photographs I post on the blog. By nature I'm a portrait photographer and I enjoy action sport photography as well. This isn't to say that I don't do it all, I do, however nearly every photographer has their preferred niche. Mine is people :).

See ya soon! Enjoy the holiday weekend. I'm heading out to find some action to make photographs of!

Aon Wrestling 5_22_2010 Part 2

2010-05-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting in front of my computer, posting part two of this blog, and adding some new photographs to the website. the rain has subsided today, and the sun is out. I am going to go around and see about making a few prints of some of the vistas of the area. We will see if that comes to fruition today, since there's quite a bit of work to do from this weekend.

As posted in Part One of the blog, it was a difficult show to photograph. You lose a reasonable amount of detail at ISO 6400 setting on any camera. You can see a lot of tests where a camera company shows a nice nice photograph at their highest ISO setting. What they do NOT tell you is how they arrived at it. A lot of times if you OVEREXPOSE a high ISO file, you mitigate some of the noise artifacts. Okay, so over expose by say 1/3-2/3 f/stops. Alright, so why don't you do that? Well what if you're photographing action? You want as FAST a shutter speed as you can muster, even underexposing the photograph and bringing it back in post *(the reverse of the above, so increasing the noise more).

Okay, so that doesn't explain everything. Most of the times, when you're using a high ISO setting such as 3200 or 6400 or higher, you're starved for quality+quantity of light. So what do these people do? They shoot a portrait of an individual, overexposing maybe 1/3 shot, using a studio strobe to light it, inside of say a softbox (thus dealing with quality and quantity of light) and then have a crew of professional retouchers bringing back detail or creating it.

I'm not saying that high ISO's haven't improved drastically. My old 30D I wouldn't have shot above ISO 800. I considered it an 800 camera. My old 40D, I shot at 1600. Now with the current cameras, except my 5D, I shoot at 3200 or 6400 if needed.

Alright, enough of that. Just shedding some light on how some camera manufacturers make their high ISO performance appear better than it is. Don't show me a portrait in a studio environment illustrating your high ISO performance. Show me a low light action shot at f/2.8 where you're BARELY getting enough shutter speed to freeze medium paced action, and you'll be seeing what I'm showing.

I just want to touch upon the background of these photos from this most recent event. My shooting position put me opposite this white divider cloth that the venue used to divide the floor section. The crowd sat below me, and to each side, so this wasn't a "set up ring with a cute white background". In hind site, I would have liked to have moved and shot with a crowd as my background, as the white really bothers me.

Well, here's a few from the show. I really only got to photograph about half of the show. The first part of the show, locating the venue controller of the lights was hard to do and we needed more of the lights turned on. In the beginning I was metering for 1/125 and that's simply not fast enough to even try to catch someone throwing someone through the air.

Please don't think me saying about the lighting is to say the lighting is bad at the venue. It's not, it's just not good for action photography. Think of highschool gymnasium lighting and you get the idea.

Here's a few photos, and a link to the first blog post

http://roblynnphotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/aon-wrestling-5222010-part-1-education.html

Also I want to say, since someone was confused about this before. My website is WWW.ROBLYNN.ORG

If you go to roblynn.com, it is not me. I have him linked on my site, and I suggest to take a look at his site and story too, however we are not the same guy.

AON Wrestling 5_22_2010 Part 1, Education of fluorescent lighting.

2010-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

ISO 1600 Film Sample

I am going through the images from the most recent AON Wrestling event that was in State College PA last night. If I didn't know better, I would think that the people who have my photograph the events I shoot at didn't like me.

What do I mean? Shutter speed is everything in action photography. You see in these places, the lighting isn't very good photographically speaking. Firstly, it's contrasty. Secondly it's not in a great enough quantity to allow enough light into the sensor properly exposing the image.

Why is contrasty light bad? I mean, yeah sometimes we want BLACK shadows, and BRIGHT highlights that transition from one another quickly.

Like what the eye sees isn't always what the camera sees. The dynamic range of the human eye is much greater than the dynamic range of a camera sensor.

Simply put, if you put a very contrasty light scene with lots of dark shadows and bright highlights in front of your camera, and in front of your eye. More often than not, the eye sees more than the camera sensor in that situation. Wait, more? What do I mean more? Well in the eye we see a little detail in the black and we see a little detail in the highlights. In the camera, we may see just BLACK instead of shadow with detail. In the camera we may see "blown" highlights (nuked white), but our eye still discerns details. Maybe it's texture of the material, or something like that that WE can see, btu the eye doesn't see.

So these places that have the low light, require you to bump your ISO substantially. OKay, not as big of a deal as before. You should see some of the examples of high ISO film. Just google them. I am actually posting an ISO 1600 film shot exposed for in a controlled environment. You should see how grainy it is compared to one of the ISO 6400 (4 times more sensitive to light and likewise them more likely to show digital noise patterns or "grain) from my 1D3. The difference is staggering.

So yes, I know that bumping ISO isn't as big deal as before but back to the dynamic range thing. When you increase the ISO further, the dynamic range of the scene decreases in the sensor's eyes. So a typical scene may measure 13-15 f/stops of light. The sensor normally can get around 11 in optimal conditions, and then when you increase the ISO you may get 8 f/stops in the high ISO settings. So that means either the highlights go so you have shadow detail or your shadows go so you have highlight detail. You can use flash to bring up the exposure, btu if you use flash and you don't have a gel on your light that matches your main source...guess what? Your colors are going to look all wrong.

The numbers above I"m just making up, but they are similar and indicative of what I'm talking about. They just put a nuumber on the loss of dynamic range. We as people learn a lot more from something when we can put a number on it.

"It costs A LOT of money."
"It costs $246, 624, 677.00"

See what I mean?

The other thing is the cycling of the lights. When your shutter speed is too fast for the cycle of the type of light (which is almost always in action photography BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO HAVE FAST SHUTTER SPEEDS to freeze action), you'll catch the cycle of the light.

I've enclosed 4 photographs taken in sequence (meaning they were one burst). they are 4 that didn't make the cut, but they perfectly illustrate my point.
1D3, ISO 6400, f/2.8 1/400 is the "data" on them. This gives you an idea of the cycling I'm talking about and what makes it a bugger to deal with.

See the difference in the 4? How there's the "band" or "dark" that travels across the frame. That's the cycle of light that I'm talking about. So couple high ISO, rapid cycling lights, and fast moving subjects and you see just three of the reasons why action photography is so difficult.

I'll post more GOOD news from the event, as I process everything. So look for blog part two.

Winter.

2010-05-21T13:49:00.001-07:00

You've got to be thinking "what"? When I type Winter. I've been going through my catalog of photographs and I realize that I didn't post these on here this Winter.

I know that Winter is over, but these are a few photographs of the last Winter. I try to stay out of bad weather, but sometimes this can make for some of the best photographs of the winter you'll see.

What do I mean? Who really goes out and looks at 2 or 3 feet of snow? Most people see it from inside their house and maybe behind their snowblower, but who sits and actually looks at a piece of scenery when they're dealing with 24+ inches of snow? Kids play in it, adults remove it.

This Saturday I'll be in State College photographing AON Wrestling. It will be AON's first outting in State College PA (in-so-far as I know). While I am up there, I hope to make some photographs of the areas of State College. We'll see how it goes.

That said, Senior Season is in FULL swing. PLEASE book your sessions EARLY, that way you do not have to rush into them. What I mean by this is simply, you think you have 8-12 months, but then it's 4-8, and then 4 and 2 months and you're running to find a photographer. Start searching for your choice photographer *hint the answer is me :P* early!

Remember, veterans are always appreciated by Rob Lynn Photography and I offer a veteran's bonus to anyone serving or having served in any branch of the US Armed forces.

Also, if you're in the market for a new hand built guitar, call up www.jdrguitars.com Jeff is a class act and has done a lot for me personally over the years. The thing about it is this, he's just the same way to anyone he meets. He treats everyone well and makes a sweeeeeetttttt guitar at a great price.

See ya soon and pictures will follow the event tomorrow night, or Sunday morning.

Just a weekend of what? Yeah, what?

2010-05-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

I bet that doesn't make much sense to you, because it doesn't make any sense to me.
What does a photographer do, when he's not being a photographer? They make pictures! Okay, what am I rambling on about?

No client sessions this weekend, and a few beautiful days had me wanting to make some photographs. I wanted to try and find some sporting events and check out the AF on my 1d. I caught the rear end of a little league game, however it was the very end when I got there and I didn't get a chance to make any photographs. So I'm thinking, I'm losing daylight and I want to check the AF out on this camera in AI Servo, so I thought of moving vehicles. I went to a bridge and took a few snaps of a train moving, and some cars. Sure thing the camera is AFing' wonderfully (AF is auto-focus) in servo. I still haven't done great tests yet on it to 100% be certain of this (without going on there was an issue with 1d3 in that it may have erratic focus on a back-lit person coming at the camera on a hot day in AI servo). There were fixes done to it by Canon that corrected the phenomenon, but you still have to be sure of it.

Well I had been wanting to silo-what-now the Cathedral for some time and it was just about sunset. So I waited it out and made that photograph also. In the photograph of the cathedral, you notice a black speck in the clouds. That's a bird. In a large version you can clearly see all outline of the animal. On web-size, it looks just like a black dot but I assure you, it isn't. I also like how our old Glory has some color to the image, and the cathedral is completely black.

So that was Saturday. On nice days when there's nothing going on, I enjoy taking a look at different locations for possible environmental portraits. I drove all around and my travels ended up having me at Chimney Rocks in Holidaysburg. Before I got there, I seen some flags and the US flag means a lot to me, so I liked the light, angle of light and the line so I made that photograph. By the time I got to chimney rocks, the sky was HAZY and no longer nice and blue (how it can all go to crap in NO time flat!). I still hiked to the top and made a quick snapshot. The photograph is nothing more than a snapshot of the incredible view you get from up there.

Also included is my orange cat, tangerine back-lit by the window blinds.

I will be in State College this weekend for AON wrestling, so I'll go up a little early and make a few photos of that area too. The downside to it is, I'll get bright daylight that's right over head (the time of day) and I don't think I'll get any "golden hour" (more like golden 20 minutes) light on my subjects. I also do not know State College that well OR the area surrounding it, so I'm not sure what to shoot. I will however find some new photographs to bring along with the wrestling.

Hopefully this place has more light than the other places I've been. I'm telling you, ISO 4000-6400 with f/2.8 and 1/320 is wayyy too dim for action.

Without further adieu, here are the photographs. Talk to you all next time!

EDIT! I can't believe I hadn't heard, nor did I know the arts festival was this weekend! I would have so been there!

Rob

A little of everything

2010-05-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to catch up with the last few days of phone calls, e-mails and photographs. I like to stay busy all of the time. I like the sense of urgency rather than being able to procrastinate.

Coming up this month, I'll be photographing AON wrestling in State College, and then in June looking at at least 2 more events of theirs to photograph.

There's a few fights coming up that I'll be photographing, but since everything is verbal right now, rather than in stone I'll wait until I know more to comment on that.

This is the season when the parents of seniors start thinking about having their photos done. I truly suggest getting your quotes and dates in sooner than later. Before you know it, it's the end of the year and you're on crunch time trying to find a photographer last minute with a day open.

I would like to talk about copyright for a few minutes. If you notice on my website that you cannot download an image of mine by right clicking on it, and if you try, you're prompted with a message letting you know that the photograph copyright is owned by me and that if you want it you have to go through me.

On my blogs, you'll notice that there's a water mark and a border on the image. Also the images are resized to an almost unprintable size. This is simply to prevent theft. Wait, theft? People will steal someone's photographs? You betchya. Some folks just want something for nothing, and have no problem devaluing your work. It recently happened to me that I had to go back and forth with someone over an illegally downloaded photograph. Now I'm not confrontational but I won't stand by while someone takes something of mine. It really upset me that I wasn't asked for a download. I wasn't asked if it was okay, it was just taken and used.

Some folks may not realize the problem with downloading images illegally. Do a quick google and see what happens when you take copyrighted products. The guy who downloaded the photograph told me he learned how to do it in of all places SCHOOL! His school told him how to take a product! That's just insane. Rather than educate the kids on stealing, they told them how to. Now the guy who ended up with it, I have 0 problems with. I truly think both people didn't realize how big of a deal it is to do it. They removed the product and that's that. But it's prompted me to go back to watermarking my images that I post online. All photographs on this website are copyright protected and owned by myself. If you would like to use, obtain or purchase them please do the right thing...contact me.

When you order prints, the watermark will not appear on the photograph, but they will have a watermark on them when you view them online.

Here's a few photos for you to take a look at. I can be commissioned to come to photograph your prom, and your special events. Book those dates early, because my datebook fills up quickly.

The cat photograph is a photograph I made for a photo project. It's my cat window hunting.

The young man photograph is a senior photo I was messing with. I photographed the young ma "traditionally", but ALSO wanted to play with some other lighting patterns. I love this split lighting, and on some subjects it just works great.

AON WRESTLING!

2010-05-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

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!

IWFC 3 quick pictures

2010-05-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

In MMA there's more on the line than a W or an L. You've got your pride, your personal safety and money on the line. There's more to it than that, but I'm just getting ready to head out to AON wrestling at the Pasquerilla center in Johnstown PA (one of these days I'll spell it right).

The night of fights last evening played host to injury, controversy and celebrity. An appearance was made by UFC newcomer Charlie "The Spaniard" Brenneman, a fighter had his elbow broken/dislocation, and another fighter protested he didn't tap out.

A full gallery will be on my website by 10 PM tonight, barring any internet outages. Here's a few quick samples of the events I speak of.

Girls throwing t-shirts?! IWFC 3!

2010-05-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

Just got back in from an action packed night at the IWFC 3 event at the Cambria county war memorial. Any photographer that's photographed MMA (and there's less of us than you think) will tell you how much more they like shooting INTO the cage rather than THROUGH the cage. The problem with through the cage is that the fence grabs the focus of the camera a lot. You just learn to deal with it though.

Last time at an IWFC the other photographer and myself both shot INTO the cage, and a few other promoters I've shot for have the same set-up for me. Well this time, it was a mix of over and through. Must say I liked the over better than through.

Well, the throwing t-shirts comes from the girls who were tossing some Spaniard shirts to the crowd. The Spaniard isn't Russel Crowe, it's Charlie Brenneman, the Holidaysburg native that was just signed to the UFC.

I'll post more later, but I've got to get to bed, as tomorrow I'll be photographing AON Wrestling in Johnstown.

See ya there!

Pittsburgh Raceway

2010-04-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

I think one of the things that makes me desirable to work with is my honesty. I won't try and sell you something I wouldn't buy, and I won't lie to you.

There are some folks who would misrepresent their products by saying they have done something that they have not done, and they may possibly steal a photograph, or mislead you about how they got them.

If I have never done anything like I'm being asked, I always come right out and say it. If I don't think I could deliver, I wouldn't do it.

So my brother is a gear-head. He likes to tune up cars and drive them on the strip. He called me up and asked if I could gather him a photograph of his car racing. I told him that I had never photographed a car race before but would be glad to give it the ol' college try. Well we get to the track and I decide that I'm going to do a few NEW things.

Firstly, using my 70-200 2.8IS in IS mode 2, which is meant for PANNING...Secondly, I would do just that "PAN" all of my photographs (this is using a slightly slower shutter speed, and following the direction of travel of the intended target), and I would attempt to photograph racing.

Since I have owned the lens (a few years now), I have never had it in mode 2, and I've never panned a photograph before. The line of photography I do just never called for it. There's not really too many reasons to pan the photograph of a senior portrait, and no reason I can think of that I want to do it.

Now I talk tech talk sometimes on these blogs, and typically the nicest racing or cars in motion photographs I've ever seen have come from reasonably bright daylight. We get there and I'm shooting ISO 3200 (which is quite high). See photographers are always speaking about the quantity, and quality of light.

I would have loved for more light, as a hard light on the car isn't really a big deal, and a dark black shadow isn't a big deal either.

So I practiced until Steven's car was ready to go, and then photographed his. We stayed because Steven was going to run a few more times, however it rained, then by the time they got back out, his tire was flat (damn slicks) and when he got it ready, it was already too late. Good thing someone spotted his tire being low, because he could have been hurt driving 130MPH in a 1/4 mile.

I will be at the Iron Will Fighting Championship 3 at the Cambria County War Memorial on Saturday, and at the Pasquerella center for AON wrestling on Sunday. Come say hi!

Rob

Layers of flavor!

2010-04-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

A recent snap from my wife's tulip garden. It's in the early works, and we're hoping to grow it a bit more for next season. The day I made this photograph, there was very high winds, and that makes flower photography quite difficult, as the area you focus on moves back and forth, while you're focus points doesn't.

The weekend is winding down, and as my wife is watching Brothers and Sisters, I'm following up on some upcoming events, and watching some television. They keep playing this Trident Layers gum commercial and I think it's funnier every time.

WEC 48 took place Saturday night, and I had Jose Aldo winning. I didn't get to see the event, but I figured it would end in TKO in RD 3 or 4. Urijah was game though and hung in till the end. I seen the photographs he posted on his twitter page...that leg looks bad!

Iron Will Fighting Championship 3 will take place May 1st at the Cambria County War Memorial. I will be cage side photographing the event. If you're interested in going, get your tickets soon before they sell out. I think this show is going to be great!

There is a possibility that I'm at a VFL MMA event in D.C. on Friday, but that's in the air yet.

Also, I will be at the AON wrestling event at the Pasquerella center in Johnstown PA on May 2nd. It's going to be a BUSY weekend!

A few training pictures. Or maybe trainers?

2010-04-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today I had the usual plans of working out at Snap, but there was an assignment to do also. Photograph Lisa, and Matt, both trainers at Snap in Altoona, for the website and their in store, for lack of a better word or words "Get to know your trainer paper".

This is the kind of assignment that photographs both love, and at the same time not love so much. Let's cover both ideas behind it.

See every job has goals. Every job is to get photographs the client will enjoy. However there's a "beyond" that, like the intricacies of the job. For instance, a Dr. may just want a file that he/she can use on a business card or their website. Another Dr. may want to be on a website, or billboard. Some business clients want ONE photograph of each person. When you photograph a senior, you've got several photographs you're making and promoting.

The downside to most corp. photo sessions is, you don't get a lot of time and you don't get to do a lot creatively. Whereas on a senior portrait session you get to let the cat out of the bag.

The reason we love these types of sessions is, I can get in, set up, meter my lights, and get the task completed quickly. Most of these types of clients are VERY busy and can only spare 10 minutes or less! This means you've got to be able to get the client posed, and build that "relationship" as quickly as possible.

I think of taking a person's photograph more than clicking the shutter button or setting up my lights. It's the complete package, and that includes me getting to know my client and doing a good job of getting a personal relationship with them. Basically, they have to be more than a client. You make a friend out of them. Other than me being a friendly person, why would one do this? Because if I'm going to stick a camera, a lens, and a bunch of lights in front of you, it's intimidating! What better way to face something that's intimidating than with a friend?

I usually take the Zack Arias approach and "warm-up" like a pitcher in the bull-pen, but on these sessions, you really can't. You've got to be set up, metered and ready to go so you do not disrupt these professionals for too long. Because the bottom line is, if you can't do it, they will get someone who will.

You will find that you don't get to flex your creative muscles on these types of sessions, but you'll also find that if you can't turn out a technically solid photograph on a whim, that making as a portrait photographer isn't going to work out.

I'll post back soon!

Check out Snap Fitness, Iron Will Fighting Championships, Charlie Brenneman (UFC fighter), and AON Wrestling! I'll be at IWFC 3 at the Johnstown War Memorial on May 1st, and AON at the Pasquerella center May 2nd!

Rob

Circus, AON...gym?

2010-04-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting down at the computer for a few minutes, after I finished up at the gym. Had a great session with Matt Caputo. If you need a personal trainer, I personally (no pun, haha) suggest that you give Matt Caputo at the Altoona, Snap Fitness a call. I really like that gym. It's clean, the 24 hours a day thing is sweet AND the rates are really reasonable.

Not to try and bore people with different photographic technique and the "behind the scenes" of it, but a lot of people don't realize what goes into being a photographer. It's funny, people think that now that digital is the new wave, that everything is point, click, print... It couldn't be further from the truth.

Now in the case of photojournalism, you shoot and crop...that's about it. You can't change reality, as it's not accepted. To my PJ work, the ONLY adjustments made to them are typically a cropping, or possibly pushing the exposure a stop. The reason we do this is, sometimes the light isn't good enough to get an acceptable shutter speed to stop motion blur or camera shake. We deliberately underexpose the image by an f/stop or 2, then bring it back in post processing. This does have a slightly negative effect on the photograph's final quality, but with professional equipment, you've got a lot more latitude than you do with just the amateur gear. This would get really boring if I got into how it affects dynamic range, and there's people who specifically shoot these cameras, just to see how they do in different crazy situations, but me, I use the tool the way it takes me to get the best possible photograph for myself or the client.

Okay, enough of that. I guess I do go off on "teaching" sprees sometimes. If I had the academic credentials to teach, I probably would teach photography too.

If you check out my galleries, all of the most recent AON photographs are uploaded, and the 2010 circus photos are now uploaded. Please take a moment to look them over.
http://roblynn.smugmug.com/Entertainment

Until next time!

PS
From now on, all AON Wrestling Galleries reflect lower prices, with a discount. No need to contact me before ordering, just order from the site and you'll receive your prints in the mail quickly.

Rob

AON Wrestling!

2010-04-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

REALLY!

Some shots from tonights AON Wrestling, at the YPCC in Ebensburg. A great little center to have an event. I'll tell you what, I said this before and I'll say it again. While I'm not a fan of Pro. Wrestling, maybe it's because I've fallen out of touch with it as a child, or maybe because my interests have changed. I do not know, but regardless this is what I'm going to say,

Crap! They take some HITS, and HARD hits. Anyone who thinks that what they do is easy is out of their freakin' mind. I have trained Judo and JuJitsu for the past however many years, and I'll tell you for CERTAIN that what they do is just as hard, if not harder.

Justin Filer, of Drenning/Filer MMA, an MMA fighter, BJJ practitioner and the like was there. He and I were looking at each other and going WOW! WE were shocked and impressed at the beatings that these guys give and take.

Jason Davis has a good show there, and the wrestlers are a great group of people. I hope the guys bear with me while I learn their names!

I'll post a few more pictures later, and I'll have them on my website tonight or tomorrow, then back to the circus photos!

Don't be thrown off by all of the MMA, events and the like I photograph, I am still indeed a portrait photographer. If you're interested in booking a session, get a hold of me, I've got great specials going on.

More Circus Photographs

2010-04-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

I'm posting 5 more pictures from the Jaffa Circus. The wife and I had a grand ol' time together seeing the acts. This year's circus was better than last years I think. I'm going to buy our tickets much earlier for the next show. There was some calamity there at the shrine with a power outage before the show, and we had to wait outside in the rain for awhile. The circus was running about 45 minutes late. I can imagine that would be difficult for the performers nerves. I could only imagine being on a tightrope or doing like the acrobatics and the lights going out...

This year all of the tigers (el tigre) were white! They were outstanding looking, and the female tiger tamer did a great job, but I sorta miss the Guy Fiere looking guy...no pun! from last year's show.

They didn't have the pole climbers (I don't know what you would call them) this year, but they had a woman who climbed up and did some stunts on these silks. I'll post them later.

The photos posted here are of the performers who were swinging these strings and hitting wood to the beat of music, and playing drums. There is also a quick glimpse of the 7 man pyramid on the tightrope, and the juggling hat guy.

Tomorrow (or rather today) I should be photographing another AON wrestling event in Ebensburg PA. I will post a few select shots from that after the event.

Circus!

2010-04-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

Just a few quickies from the Jaffa Shrine 2010 circus. More to come later.

New Blog is integrated to the website!

2010-04-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

I am officially done with wordpress! From now on (or until blogspot upsets me) I will be using this as the blog for Rob Lynn Photography.

I will be posting some photos from the Jaffa Shrine Circus tomorrow, in Altoona PA.

From what I hear, this show is going to be the best they've had yet, and the white tigers are something to behold!

Stay Tuned!

Rob