A few Amateur MMA Shots

GadgetRick

I sort of help manage a few fighters I train with. One of my amateurs--Hector Mercado--had a fight the other night in Newark, NJ. So I was there to support him as well as shoot the fights. Actually getting work from the promoter on his next show as well as maybe selling some of my shots from this one.

I didn't shoot with flash as the lighting was excellent. However, I was still limited at around 1/200 shutter speed. If he does hire me for upcoming shows, I'm hoping to set up a couple of strobes but that's a discussion for another time...

Anyway, all but the last photo are of my fighter. This is only a short series as I still have a TON of photos to get through but I'm still getting through some Jr. Prom photos I shot the night before this. It's good to be busy.

Here are some shots:

1:


2:


3:


4:


5:


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9:


10:


11:


12:


And this is one my favorite shots from the night (from a different fight):
13:

canonthen

Great shots!!
You come a long way my friend.

GadgetRick

canonthen wrote: »

Great shots!!
You come a long way my friend.

Why thankyew Yoda. Couldn't have done it without your help.

GadgetRick

I'll throw another into the mix.

rookieshooter

Extremely well done. #10 is awesome!!!

GadgetRick

Thanks. This set is getting me a bunch of work, too.

SnapLocally

Not bad. I will say though that I don't recommend using a flash for fights, namely for the fighters safety. I know it sounds a bit hypocritical as I just posted pro wrestling shots where I obviously did use a flash, but for combat sports that involve actual competition I never use it, not until the fight is over.

You're also going to want to up your shutter speed, which will also mean increasing your ISO. I know it's a cliche, but it's worth repeating: you can fix noise, but you can't fix blur.

canonthen

Damn Rick, you did really well! You captured much more than just fighting. Excellent photojournalistic coverage.

SnapLocally

Agreed.

BTW, #10 is my favorite.

GadgetRick

Thanks. Working really hard to improve my skills. I almost did bump my ISO to get faster shutter speeds, just getting comfortable being able to shoot at higher ISOs so it's tough for me to bump it higher. I plan to try higher speeds--especially when I get lighting like I had there.

time2smile

Nice series, feels like i'm there. My votes for #10 also.
thanks for sharing

GadgetRick

time2smile wrote: »

Nice series, feels like i'm there. My votes for #10 also.
thanks for sharing

Thanks. I took a lot more but this was the best series.