What a great fight. I was able to get into the front row and by the middle of the event, I was elbow on the apron.

The ring announcer was asking me photography related questions between rounds and I got to meet (shake hands actually) with Herb Dean and Steve Mazzagatti!

With the D200 and 70-200mm hanging off of it, I wasn't questioned. I pretty much went where I wanted. It was a small venue but it sure felt awesome.

Below are a small sample of the 200 or so photos from the event. I live in a black and white world so the B&W are preferred over color.

http://ultravista.dyndns.org:1111/ray/2008/02-01-2008%20(BoDog%20MMA)/

You'll find color, black and white and black and white (with film grain applied) folders. I personally like the B&W with film grain. The blood on the apron however looks awesome on color ...

Let me know what you think.



http://ultravista.dyndns.org:1111/ray/2008/02-01-2008%20(BoDog%20MMA)/HTML%20B%26W/dsc_0137-1-bw_std.jpg
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interesting, what sort of questions was he asking you?...are those women boxers?, i didn't think they had females in MMA...

Nice pics ...What equipment were you using? What ISO? You cleaned up the grain well.

Wow what great stunning shots, The blk&white are awesome
Not a great lover of the colour ones but that probably is because i dont like the sight of blood :grin: in saying that the one 7th up from the bottom of your post shows the blood (can't believe i am going to say this) tastefully

Palms

Wow!

I'm not a fan at all of boxing (or any other fight sports for that matter...) but your b&w photos are great! Well done!

IMO your color pictures lack the drama and grittiness of the black and white photos.

At first I thought the ropes were distracting, but the more I looked at the pictures the less I noticed them, and in quite a few of them, they were great in the way they framed the action.

Great Work!

[EDIT]

Would you mind talking about the technical details? I see that you used a Nikon D200. Did you use flash at all? Was it hand-held or did you use a monopod? Did you shoot in b&w or are these conversions? Finally, what did you mean by "I live in a black and white world"?

Thanks.

What a great fight. I was able to get into the front row and by the middle of the event, I was elbow on the apron.
...

palms1 - I'm not a blood person but it tells the story. The apron was nearly blood free all night. The last bout however opened the flood gates. Pretty gross but it does speak to the violence. I may take one of the better frames, and go with a colorized black and white.

pixelzombie - yes, there were four women on the card that night. They don't mess around either, talk about brutal ...

skydog - shooting with a D200 and 70-200mm VR lens. The camera was set to aperture priority (2.8+) and sometimes AUTO-ISO or ISO 1600. The lighting was great and I mistakenly shot matrix. Next time, it will be center weighted to eliminate some of the blow out.

Frank - black and white is my passion. My comment about living in a b&w world means I "envision" my photos as black and white as opposed to color. Nothing wrong with color, my preference leans heavily towards black and white.

Technique, an interesting question. This was my first sporting event and I'm new to the D200 (less than one month). I sought advice on a few other forums and followed what I was told (well, almost).

Aperture priority, high ISO, RAW, matrix for close shots & center weighted for far. What I forgot - changing the metering and I shot everything in .jpg. The excitement of the opportunity had me shooting and not thinking. Luckily I set the body to A priority with a high ISO in advance.

I was so engrossed in photographing the fighters that I wasn't paying attention to what was happening. I couldn't tell you who won or lost.

I am struggling with classifying my style. What would you call it? Below is a comment from a MMA reporter from the fight. He has seen my photos and made the following statement.

"Your photos are much, much better than just print worthy. You could seriously call them art. Your photos seem to focus more on capturing the emotions of a fight rather than the action. You show the joy of winning and the grief of loss beautifully, but a lot of people are after the action shots"

Everything is a learning experience. Next time, I would not go so tight to capture more of the surroundings and crop as needed. It would have helped to have two bodys, one with a long lens and the other with the 17-35mm.

I was just a spectator at the fight who managed to get front row and nearly on the apron :)

...matrix for close shots & center weighted for far...


Why was that? I would think center weighted for close shots would give you more accurate exposure... no?

What I was told ... matrix for a brighly lit boxing ring will result in blowouts. I did notice that my wider shots were hotter than others.

The boxer / fighter is isolated against a much darker background.