photography
Echo-location: Weekly Emulsion 10/10 & 10/18 /
Due to my routinely busy weekend schedule of watching Formula 1, lazily working out, taking hours to wash the dishes, looking at puppies on Instagram, and occasionally bathing… I had two very short windows of time to use my last roll of Portra 400, so even though all of these photos take place within a square mile of Echo Park, the roll spans across the sunset of two different Saturdays.
It would be kinda fun to see how far I could physically run/shoot in one golden hour. I’d have to consider the location, having to walk back in the dark though. I’ll crunch the numbers and have my people get back to your people…
GLORY to Womens. (GLORY 37 / Womens March DTLA) /
Last week, a couple of yuuuuge events took place in my neighborhood: GLORY 37 and Womens March Los Angeles. I rented my dream lens combo (Sony 24-70mm G-Master and Mitakon 50mm 0.95) for the fights and the march, and I also played around with a multiple exposure idea that once woke me up in the middle of the night.
"You've been poisoned." Rented my dream lens combo, fell in love with their pure optical sex, and now I don't want to live in a world where I don't own them. Bruh.
Before falling asleep one night, I saw a photo my friend posted on Instagram that she took with her iPhone that had a double exposure of the beach and the silhouette of a woman layered over it. I fell asleep thinking, "hmm... I wonder how she got two exposures in one file? Digital isn't like film, you can't double expose without some special app or photoshop... Also, hmmmm... these blankets are so warm... still, I wonder...zzzzz... fart (I assume)." In the background, The Princess Bride was left streaming on Netflix. The soft glow of a familiar movie on television serving both as night light and bedtime story. The low rumble of our dryer.
MY EYES OPENED WIDE. "Bulb mode. Like pinhole cameras! EUREKA-BOOM-BOOM-DOWN."
Whenever I've shot along side James Law in his studio shoots for GLORY, his strobes always end up giving him amazing results, where I'm in the same room standing next to him taking photos using the ambient light of a hotel meeting room like a jackass. Needless to say, my shots have always been garbage. So with my new idea, I thought I could open up my shutter set to bulb, listen for his camera to beep every time he got his focus, and opened my "shutter" to catch his flash. After getting a few exposures with stolen light, I'd let go of the shutter button and voila-- in-camera, multiple exposures. 'Fuck you, photoshop. Haters gon' say it's you.'
On the day of the fights, I busted out the lenses I rented from LensProToGo. I had been lusting after them for quite some time, but being the anti-baller tightwad prone to buyers remorse that I am, I rented them instead. Long story short, I want them. I want them bad. Real bad. Like, I would do things.
I mounted the Sony 24-70mm F2.8 G-Master onto my A7rii and the Mitakon 50mm F0.95 Dark Knight onto my A7s. When spun the lens onto their mounts, I'm preeeetty sure a choir of angels sang in the distance. I showed up to the venue and found it to be quite a different setup than I've become accustomed to in my short career in fight photography. The ring was setup on a stage, so effectively, one side of the ring couldn't be occupied by anyone, which of course meant that the ringside photographer's apron would be sacrificed. I sometimes forget that even though I come off very happy-go-lucky in life, I'm actually pretty moody when it comes to my creative endeavors. I felt let down that I'd rented these lenses thinking I could do what I always do, stand exactly where I always stand, and then be able to make a fairly scientific comparison to my usual lens combo; the Zeiss 24-70mm F4.0 and the Zeiss 55mm F1.8. No dice. I don't know if anybody saw, but I think I pouted at the news that I wouldn't be comfortably nestled ringside. What a bitch. Anyway, after a couple of beers and a lot of great advice from James Law, Ryan Loco, and Phil Lambert, I said 'fuck it,' and decided to do a lens comparison between apples and oranges. It would be G-Master vs. Dark Knight. All-purpose king of sharpness zoom vs. All-manual shallow DoF prime. Results vs. Process!
Below are some side-by-side examples of comparable situations that I shot out and around the ring with the G-Master and the Dark Knight. They aren't edited to match, this isn't scientific whatsoever, but it's a pretty good comparison of what each lens is all about. The photos on the left are all G-Master and the photos on the right are all Dark Knight.
It pretty much goes without saying that the G-Master is the better performer in nearly all categories on a website like DxO Mark. It's ridiculously sharp wide open and at all focal lengths. Compared to my Zeiss 24-70mm F4, obviously the extra stop of light is the difference on paper, but the biggest improvement I saw is the color rendition. The colors just look 'right.' If in some crazy scenario where the fate of the world hinged on me to taking photos of an event in an undisclosed location with unknown variables; this would be the lens I'd take (this is another place my mind goes at night).
On the other hand, the Mitakon is very prone to flaring which makes the contrast lie somewhere between milky and a hazy shade of winter, the lens even at the same F-stops is probably less sharp than the GM even when closed down, and they weigh almost the same. That being said, shooting sports with a manual lens and a razor-thin depth of field is waaaaaaay fun. Even completely missing focus looks like a purposeful artistic choice. The challenge of nailing the focus in the viewfinder without focus peaking made me go from feeling uninspired to feeling on fire and anxious to capture moments. There is no way to passively use a lens like this. To paraphrase ol' Jim Gordon, "The Dark Knight was the hero I deserved, but not the one I needed."
The next morning, our friends came over and we participated in the Women's March which basically took place at our doorstep in DTLA. I had a camera on me, but was struck with a feeling that I wanted to be there as a participant and a supporter, not as a photojournalist. I took maybe 15 photos, and this is the one that speaks for me and my feelings at the march:
Later, after we had gone back to our apartment, my friend asked me to show her how I got those multiple exposure shots of kickboxers that I'd shot just a couple of days before. I realized that I'd never told her that I was actually inspired by her multiple exposure instagram post. Apparently, it was a happy accident caused by an HDR app that takes multiple bracket exposures. Someone quickly walked past as it happened and voila, a lost night of sleep for my ever-spinning brain.
Firepower vs. Experience: GLORY 30 (MarcusVJacoby) /
I had the opportunity to photograph Simon Marcus defending his GLORY Middleweight Title against the very dangerous Dustin Jacoby at GLORY 30 (gallery is at the bottom if you want to skip my kickboxing nerd talk).
Simon Marcus admires his handiwork after sweeping Dustin Jacoby. GLORY 30 Los Angeles.
I was pumped to get to shoot two fighters getting ready for a big title fight. When I went backstage to get them warming up I was surprised to see that their locker rooms were right next to each other; both doors closed, for obvious reasons of comfort. I could hear the loud smacking of pads through the doors. Jacoby was listening to some 90's jock jams, while Marcus was listening to some 90's R&B. I wondered if each man was trying to hit the pads harder and louder to intimidate their opponent on the other side of the wall, psychological warfare could begin their match hours before they met in the ring. If I were one of them, I'd get my friends to hit pads after I was done warming up to create the illusion of a three hour continuous warm-up. Maybe hire Tong Po to kick a post non-stop, and maybe my opponents younger brother could walk in and see the display of toughness while he was lost, looking for ice (ex. see 1989 film Kickboxer). "HE WAS KICKING ONE OF DEES LIKE DEES-- HHHUUUAAAYYY, UNTIL PLASTER WAS FALLING DOWN!"
I usually would walk right into a fighters locker room to shoot their prep, but I decided to leave them to their own devices until they got the call to walk out. For some reason, they got the call at the same time and had to walk with each other down the hall up to the ramp. It made for a slightly awkward scenario, but luckily I got a shot of them emerging from their locker rooms and seeing each other for the first time that night. It felt like one of those "First Look" photos you see people do for weddings.
Jacoby was on a 5 fight knockout win streak coming into this fight. He has serious power in both hands and a deceptively long reach. For Simon Marcus to employ a hands-down and head movement style of defense was ballsy, to say the least. However, I will say that tactic plus Marcus' experience was what won him the fight. Jacoby was throwing very calculated heavy leather throughout the fight, and Marcus would dodge a majority of it but everytime he ate the really heavy shots, he would continue to slip and duck and dodge even if he was rocked, making the sting of the punch look less effective to the judges. At one point, he even did the Ramba M-16 shuffle after a particularly heated exchange. Marcus would set the pace of the fight with switch kicks to the arm, right leg kicks, and closed the gap with some nasty knees. Jacoby didn't appear to be any worse for the wear until the fifth round where a right kick from Simon Marcus snuck in under his elbow and found his liver. Jacoby dropped to a knee, barely made it up before the 10-count, and showed real heart trying to come back with a knockout for the rest of the final round. Simon Marcus was too experienced to have his belt taken away from him the last seconds and showed some beautiful techniques on his way to securing his first title defense. Backstage, the great Malaipet Sasiprapa was complimenting Simon Marcus on his masterful performance and Simon replied, "That's 'Muay I.Q."
Yardbirds. /
Brian Del Rosario gets ready for a light spar with Luke Drews at The Yard Muay Thai.
This past weekend I dropped in on part of James Law's seminar given through Leica Akademie US. It was a 3-day class, but I only stopped in for the field trip to The Yard Muay Thai gym. It was really exciting to watch James do his teaching thang with a captive audience. His students were of varying experience levels and looked like they were really taking what he was saying to heart and appreciated that he was forcing them to get out of their comfort zones. The provided Leica gear was an added bonus (I shot my first medium format shots, BRO. Wasn't my memory card though, so I don't have a copy, BRO.). I took a few photos, got to see some sparring, chatted with some of the fighters from GLORY and Lionfight, and made a few new friends. If one of my new friends is out there reading this, we're friends right? REIGHT?!? Please?
Amateur champ Natalie Morgan, looking like she's about to hand me a professional beating.
Sony World Photography Awards. /
Or, "SWPAAAAAAAAH!!!" for short.
Guys, I've been living a lie for the past two weeks. As I've been trying to hold normal conversations with you, I've really just had crazies in my eyes, giddy with excitement over being shortlisted for the World Photography Awards. Maybe you saw the crazies in my eyes. Anyway, they were there. And that's why. I can officially announce that my photo "Falling Kickboxer" is on the shortlist in the open division, split second category.
2016 Sony World Photography Awards (SWPAAAAAAAAH!!!)
I've already got a thumbs down on my photo, which the punk rocker bad boy in me (I swear, he's in there) thinks is really funny.