Saturday night’s alright…
Referee George Adkins pulled Niko Vitale off Steve Renaud in Vitale’s TKO win on Saturday night at the Blaisdell Arena. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm (at 10mm), Manual, 1/500 sec at f/3.5, ISO 3200, Tungsten setting
It was fight night Saturday at the Blaisdell Arena. X-1 mixed martial arts was the name of the game, and I was there ringside to shoot it.
The Bulletin’s been covering MMA for a few years now, and while I look forward to shooting it, there’s also a little fear and disgust lurking in the back of my foggy mind.
“Great seats!” one might think — we’re there in the thick of it, right up on the edge of the ring. And it’s true to a certain extent. Every punch to the face, or inadvertent kick to the groin, is stunningly close. There in all its painful glory.
But the drawback is that there tends to be blood. Lots of it. Sometimes it merely dribbles here and there on the mat. Other times it’s pouring like wine, and a nice punch to a bloody nose sends it showering all over us at ringside.
Tigre Marcelo is bloodied during his fight with Vernon “Tiger” White. Exposure details: Canon EOS-1D Mark II, EF 70-200mm (at 110mm), Manual, 1/640 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600, Tungsten setting
There were a couple of nice bleeders Saturday, and thankfully I was spared most of the spillage. The photog next to me wasn’t so lucky, and after one fight I looked over and mentioned, “Uh, dude, you might want to clean yourself up.” There were drops all over his face. I just had some on my cameras and notes. Star-Bulletin writers Jason Genegabus and Billy Hull, who were sitting behind us, shook their heads. I longed for some sort of biohazard kit.
Most times, the action stays in the ring. Sometimes it nearly falls into our laps. For the most part, I like to shoot ring sports with a 70-200mm lens. I like the action a little on the tight side, always better for those classic face-distorted-by-a-punch shots.
This time, for the Vitale-Renaud fight, the finale ended up right in front of me. The fighters were on the opposite side of the ring from me and I was looking for a shot with my 70-200. Then all of a sudden they come rushing straight at me, so I switch cameras to my 10-22mm lens and when I look up I see the ref is pulling Vitale off his opponent. I was like, “Geez, where’d that come from?” Glad I managed to get a shot (top photo).
A good melee between opposing corners is always a good time, too. During the Moreno-Ebanez fight, something went south between the two fighters (see Billy Hull’s story), and the next thing I know both corners are trying to leap in the ring. Burly security dudes appear from nowhere, and HPD jumps in the ring, mace at the ready. “Oh great, mace,” I thought (my last episode with mace was at the UH/Cincinnati brawl at Aloha Stadium). One cop in the ring had the Dog The Bounty Hunter industrial-sized magnum jug strapped to his leg.
Giant Mace can
But things simmered down pretty quick before any real drama got cooking. And thankfully no mace was squirted.
A fun time had by all.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:43 am
SB photogs rock! Continuing from the last thread. I hope Dino gets a chance to work for the Kalihi Weekly or the Kahala Times or other community Hawaii newspaper and learns the joy of covering breaking news or severe weather. Dino, it is dangerous, sometimes life threatening…you are often lucky to get any kine shot (like a 3am rescue off a mountain trail, or a fatal crash where relatives want to kill you for covering it, etc.). The SB photogs and we independent contributors have done this…if they had control of their environment, Rich and the boys would shoot a Pulitzer every time…and then again, I wonder how many Pulitzer remained in the computer and not on the front pages because the editor wanted a vertical not a distinctly horizontal shot. I look forward to learning and sharing here…and maybe occassionally beating up on the editors. Cheers, Barry
August 7th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Beating up on the editors? That’s a good way to make friends.
Back to Saturday night - while Billy only had a few drops of blood on his notebook, I caught some on my shirt and didn’t notice until the end of the night.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Jason, as several editors once told me…we no needs be your friend if you got the shot…or as George Lee says to me everytime he sees me anywhere, “Got anything for me today?” So “beating up editors” is obviously meant to relate to our interesting relationship with them…they rightfully demand alot from us, we do the best we can…and they run whatever they feel like. So figuratively “beating up on editors” or making fun of them is a very healthy emotional release after difficult or dangerous coverage of actualities. Go have a beer with George and Dino…they will explain it to you.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Rich,
That tungsten white balance does wonders for your shots!!! Think I’ll try that next time. My past experiences at the Blaisdell, I had it at 4400 K white balance, and it was still off a bit. The colors are true, even in the redness of the blood. Sick shots..
-j
August 7th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
That’s a nice KO shot.
I used a 24mm and a 75mm with Nikon F2’s to cover boxing. Always had to watch out for flying spit! Flying blood is a lot more worrisome.
With today’s motor drives, it makes you wonder how guys like Terry Luke and Take Umeda used to shoot peak action with 4×5 Speed Graphics and #2 press bulbs!
Keep up the writing Rich!
August 8th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Jamm -
Yeah, it was tungsten right out of the box. It ended up a little blue, so I went into curves and pulled a little out of the blue channel (in the mids).
August 8th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Dean,
Yeah this boxing/ring sport thing is a lot of rhythm and anticipation. But I do trip out when I think about those guys shooting sports with Speed Graphics. I’ve wanted to try it, but can’t afford a Speed Graphic (I did buy a flash grip assembly off e-bay — before they all got made into light sabers). Plus, I don’t think the guys in sports would want to wait for me to process sheet film…
August 8th, 2007 at 3:44 am
Aloha Barry,
Maybe George and I will see you the next time we’re out having drinks with other SB staffers. Please come up and (re)introduce yourself.
If “beating up on editors” is what you need to get your “release,” more power to you.
August 8th, 2007 at 6:51 am
Terry Luke, what a wonderful person & pj…thats a guy I still remain grateful to…especially when I was hungry.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:29 am
go dick go! i like i like i like.
MAUI HIGH WE ALL DO PRAISE THEE!!!
August 8th, 2007 at 11:29 am
i totally have a picture of the bloody shirt jason. and can i just mention how glad i am that this blog came in to existence? ok!
August 8th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Barry,
If you’re going to post comments, please make them tasteful and tactful and not off subject. “Beating up editors,” is indeed uncalled for, unnecessary. Please focus on the purpose of this blog, which is to promote insight and discussion into photojournalism and not be guided and empowered by the comfort zone that you feel just because you share the sidelines of games and sporting events with some of us. Terry Luke was a great photojournalist, and I think he deserves a bit more respect in your retrospective than “especially when I was hungry.”
–respectfully,
Jamm
August 8th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Jamm, no need alienate your friends…take a chill pill..I thought we were buds…a little overkill on your comments…and besides you got my quote, kidding about editors, wrong. I have a very good relationship with every editor at the Star Bulletin that I work with on breaking news. The editors and reporters frequently use humor, kidding me (beating up on me with humor) when we have worked on intense actualities, murders, and severe weather. Be cool Jamm, I explained what I meant in honoring the quality of your work and other SB photog in my comments. In fact, talk to your Chief Photographer, George Lee, who called and personally thanked me for my comments. So bashing me is not earning any special brownie points pal. Nit picking with me over my friendship with Terry Luke back in the early 90’s is a little bit inappropriate since it was guys like Craig Kojima, Dean Sensui and the other guys that were in the old Kapiolani Blvd building, in the days before digital when I had to come in the early, early morning at 4am from the North Shore to bring film, wait for Dean to show and have it processed. Overnight news was a big deal to the Star Bulletin when it was a morning paper. Terry Luke, like most of us old guys always shared food and stories…especially when they knew I worked overnight and came early to provide the Star Bulletin with exclusive fresh breaking news. I won’t wait for an apology, for unnecessary words like “empowered” or “comfort zone” but I will let you buy me a beer sometime and we will talk about the unfortunate anomosity you appear to be expressing. Talk to George Lee.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Sorry, I hate to kill the excitement, but let’s all keep the flame wars to a minimum.
Unless, of course, we’re talking the color temperature of the fire…
… okay maybe not…
I think you get my drift folks.
Thanks.
August 9th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Barry,
You mispelled “animosity.” ….kidding. I wasn’t bashing you, and we are buds. What I said was purely constructive, and meant to be taken constructively. No need for flame-retardant pants on that post.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
How exciting! Good to see these blogs here.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I want to extend a public apology for a previous post by me concerning Mr. Markowitz. Things were said that shouldn’t have been, and I reacted, not responded. Barry is one of the most respected visual journalists in the state, and really hustles to get the shot. My public lambasting of his comment was uncalled for, and misinterpreted by me without thinking first. Please accept my apology.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Forgotten
August 9th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
back to our regularly scheduled programming.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Awwww, the Vitale shot was big fun! I wouldn’t be surprised to see that show up in Time Magazine one day. Good going, Rich!
August 13th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Dean S.’ comments about Terry and Take bring back a lot of good memories. Terry Luke made great pictures, but more importantly, he was a great guy and a mentor that I’ll never forget….he taught me a lot, not only in photojournalism, but in life itself. Terry Luke was Terry Luke….nuff said.
I saw Take work almost every fight from 1980 until he retired and I never knew how he could consistantly out shoot me when he never looked in his view finder. He just put the camera on the canvas under the robes and pointed it toward the action and focused it by “feeling.” And if you ever had to shoot boxing (no hocuspocus autofocus in those days), you know you have to be right on…there’s no depth of field. I don’t know how he did it, but his pictures were tack sharp. It still amazes me what great pictures were taken then. I miss those guys. They were a class act not only doing their job, but in every day life.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Rich,
When shooting at ISO 3200, how bad is the noise? Do you have to shrink the image size and do other sorts of noise reduction/edition in PS, or do you get quality shots out-of-the-box at such a high ISO setting? Just wondering if you have to take a “get-the-shot-at-all-costs” mentality, or if the Canon SLR tech is so good you get winners straight out-of-the box…
Keith
August 18th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Keith — The cameras we use are pretty good with the noise at 3200 (the new Mark III goes to 6400, and the files look sweet, BTW). We don’t do any kind of noise reduction at all. The Canon files are great. The key is to not underexpose. The exposures need to be right on. Kind of like shooting slide film. You can get away with it a little under 1000 ISO, but after that, if you underexpose and then try to lighten the image later, the noise starts to become more noticeable.
August 20th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Thanks for the info Rich! 6400 ISO? Wow, that’s insane! You gotta love those Canons for not having any shutter blackout when motoring too! Shutter blackout never bothered me until I tried shooting w/ motor with my Nikon F5 print camera. I was like, “What’s going on???!! I can’t see!!!!” Time for you to request to put the Mark III in next fiscal year’s budget! hahaha
Keep up the good work Rich.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
[…] wanted to write something funny about the night he got sprinkled with blood at the Blaisdell. Or wax poetic about the handful of times we got to chat over cocktails in […]