2 years? and who is Rob Lynn?

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

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

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!

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?

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!

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

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.