Legends Football League LFL

 What do you say when you get asked to shoot the LFL?

 Well say yes quick is the short answer.
 In it's first year as a new competition played throughout Australia on Saturday night.
 The NSW Surge played it's second home game of the year.
 No less in rugby league heartland at Penrith Panthers.

 You can see why the game is so popular in the States once you are down on the ground.
 The girls are crazy athletic and could easily grace the covers of Health magazines.
  Big hits, loud party music and big personalities are in full force.
  It feels like a combination of Gridiron, WWE and NBA.

Unlike their NFL counterparts where the big boys aim for the sideline instead of the contact, these girls embrace the challenge and launch into each other with reckless abandon.
If you thought they were just pretty girls running around not wanting to get hit, you would be as wrong as wrong can be!!!

 As far as shooting it goes, I chose to use a 600 ml lens to compress the background, and shoot as tight as possible to bring out the expressions of the girls faces.
Shooting head on was a challenge due to the nature of the game, where more often than not the girl with the ball runs behind their blockers so it's hard to get a clean shot of the ball runner.
It just means you have a small window to shoot a runner, compared to Rugby League where you could have 2-3 seconds of shooting action, here it's under 1 second, so you need to be quick on the trigger.

But fun to shoot and fun to watch. If your not enjoying yourself at a LFL game than you have bigger problems.Even got to catch up with former primary and high school friend Amanda Janes who is making a name in the world of LFL.

Enjoy the pix
Til next time

Chris
#chrislanefoto

UFC Brisbane

UFC  Brisbane

As a photographer the anticipation of the first fight is overwhelming.

Having not shot a UFC before it is all a new experience. The security is tighter than any NRL game, with multiple checks throughout the day and the media pass has my photo on it. Having to show my drivers licence on two occasions to pick up my pass shows that these guys run a tight ship.

As far as being a photographer goes it was one of the more technically challenging shoots of my career.


Firstly the cage. A nightmare to shoot through it!!! Wide angle(20mm) is nearly impossible due to the fact you are around one foot from it, so you are unable to put the lens right up against the cage and shoot through the fence.
Any attempt to use it resulted in the autofocus having a meltdown and locking on to the cage not the action.  The other option was to shoot manual focus, but it's not 1950 so manual focus is not my strong point!
So the best plan of attack was to shoot with the 70-200 and zoom in on the action thus minimising the effect of shooting through the cage.
Only problem with that is as the fight action moved across the cage, once again the autofocus tried to lock onto the cage in the foreground and making it a nightmare to shoot freely, as the AF would bounce between the cage and the fight action.


The other issue was the referee, as the fight heated up and a finish was near, the ref would close in on the fighters and circle the two combatants.Thus blocking a clear shot at a crucial moment in the fight.

The UFC is such a made for TV experience that TV and their cameras take priority. So being tapped on the shoulder on numerous occasions to keep my head down while shooting. It added to the challenge with the focusing difficulty and the forever circling referee.

As in anything in life if it was easy everyone would be able to do it, and the bigger the challenge the greater the satisfaction. So try harder I did.

Back in the pressroom one of the biggest names in the sport,  Michael Bisping  wondered in searching for food, then he was asked to leave by the security when all he wanted was a donut. It showed the no pass no access rule applied to everyone, even the greats.

Sitting cageside at the UFC is definitely a surreal experience.

The legendary ringside announcer Bruce buffer sitting only meters away looks  a million dollars. In between  his famous announcing duties, he has a long line of UFC fans waiting to get there picture taken with him.The card girl Kahili is as gorgeous in real life as on TV and sits right behind me as I shoot. She also is gracious with conversations in between bouts. It sure is hard to concentrate on work when the famous card girls are that close!

To my left sat a judge which changes after every fight, all of them were interesting characters and were obviously fight fans. But it was best not to start up a conversation during the fight as I wouldn't want to be the guy who distracted a judge when someone future is on the line!!!

Then being only meters away was the great Greg Jackson, coach of GSP and Jon Jones. Hearing him shout out instructions to one of his two fighters on the card was a special moment. And man that guy can coach.

Sitting that close to the fight is far more real than on the couch. You can actually feel the thud of the 4oz gloves ripping into the bare body when a punch is thrown. Much like the sound of Rocky punching the animal carcass in the first instalment of the movie franchise.

When there is a body against the cage, just like the Ryan Bader and Anthony Perosh fight. With some serious ground and pound underway, you can really feel the breathing of the two guys and the desperation to either finish or survive.
You can't help but marvel at the craziness of the brutality, but also the toughness of the guys who chose to make a living out of the sport.

Then it's time for the big show. Main event is on and the man known as Bigfoot enters the arena to some mild cheers, then the hometown boy Mark Hunt enters and the roof nearly comes off as the Brisbane crowd goes crazy!!! Two of the biggest men you've ever seen are about to do battle in the cage, and the tension in the building is intense.

As they enter the cage, the door is shut, no one can help them now. The sound is now deafening and it compares only to a state of origin games if it were played indoor.

The fight is a sea saw battle with both fighters capable of a knock out. The intensity is insane and you can't afford to daydream during the fight, as it could finish at any point. A spectacular picture may be missed if you aren't paying attention!

As the fight goes on and local boy Hunt starts to put on some vicious left and right hands the crowd turns to chaos with screams and chants of Mark Hunt, Mark Hunt. The adrenalin runs through you as you continue to shoot, with the feeling that the roof could come off the building as the crowd goes more out of control with their screams.


The fight goes the distance and both fighters are clearly exhausted, 25 minutes of brutality and bravery has come to a end! The both hug and embrace in a way that only MMA fans can understand and the cheers for both fighters is truly deserved.

The fight is then considered a draw by the professionals. It's hard to argue that either man deserved to be a loser in arguably the best fight in heavyweight  history.

Then it's off to the media room to file and edit pictures. Normally editing pictures is a boring event, but today was different. I had Aussie fighter Rob Whitaker sitting by my side and Shogun Rua the former world champ on stage at the press conference and the nations MMA  media packed the room.
Any other day, filing pictures is the boring part of the job, but today was no ordinary day.

When the UFC comes to town ordinary goes out the window.


Til next time

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York City-City on Fire

I was wondering what  I should write about in my first blog post on my new blog Chasing Light.

I thought  about various ideas and photographic techniques I could share.
But I thought I'd go straight to the end, and talk about my favourite picture I have taken over my 18 years as a photographer.

It also happens to be in my favourite city, NYC. It is indeed the city that never sleeps.
The chaos and excitement of being in NYC is something I think everyone should experience in their lifetime.

I was into my 3rd day of a 4 day stint in NYC and I really wanted to capture the skyline during Sunset.
And I thought the best place for that was to head to Brooklyn and shoot back towards the city. It's been shot before by thousands of photographers and it was a shot that I flew all the way from Sydney to capture.

So my day started at midday, leaving my hotel just near Central Park. Judging by the map it was a straight walk down 7th avenue, cross the Brooklyn bridge and away we go.

My idea was to start at the hotel walk all the way and shoot other landmarks  as I went.
Lets just say it was a long walk, and I lost my faith in being able to read a map.

It took close to seven hours to get to the bridge. A few detours here and there to avoid some less hospitable locals, who would be quite happy to get their hands on my precious Canon and my journey was nearly complete.

So I hit the famous Brooklyn bridge to continue my pilgrimage to my vantage spot.
The walk aver the bridge is more like circus , with hoards of tourist and their iPhones snapping the bridge from all angles, New Yorkers on their afternoon jog  and street vendors selling whatever you needed or didn't need.

Finding the best vantage point to shoot the skyline was made harder by walking the backstreets of Brooklyn and getting lost like the tourist I was.
Luckily I bumped into a Sydney couple who call NYC home and pointed me in the right direction.

Getting lost in any city is bad, but made worse when the sun is setting and you've travelled across the world to photograph it. So my casual walk through NYC turned into a afternoon jog carrying cameras and an awkward tripod.
Not wanting to miss the sunset over the city was worth the unexpected workout.

So I finally found my spot overlooking the city on the Brooklyn side of the bridge and began to shoot as the sun was setting.

It also happened to be the 4th of July, which is quite a big deal in the USA. Somewhat similar to Sydney's NYE.
I also happened to be surrounded by thousands of locals and tourist wanting to witness the same thing as me.
To say it was hot is a understatement, it was the middle of a heat wave and I was surrounded by strangers and  kids screaming to their mothers "where are the fireworks". So it was not the serene moment I envisaged upon my departure from Sydney.

As the sun descended over the city, the  lights in the office buildings started to turn on and my picture started to finally take shape.
After all the hours of waiting, myself and the thousands of people finally started to see some fireworks.

Only problem was they were on the other side of the city on the Hudson River.

I'm sure for the people on the Hudson side they had a spectacular view of the show, but on the Brooklyn side we definitely had the poor mans view or in basketball terms we had row zzz.

So, frustrated that I had screwed up my only chance of shooting the worlds famous city as the sky was alight, my dream was dashed and I packed up and started head back to the hotel cursing myself for the lack of research.

After a few minutes walking I thought f.... it!!! I'll give it one more go.
So I set up once again in a new spot, giving it one last chance before I threw in the towel.

As I did, the kind people running the show let off a series of fireworks red in colour and my tourist eyes lit up!!!

Bingo I said to myself, I'm back in action. And for the next few minutes I shot my heart out.

With the advantage of a 30 second exposure, it was able to give the impression that this fabulous city was on fire.

So with some luck and persistence I was able to take a picture that I can call my all time favourite. Aptly named "City on Fire".

Content I then headed back to the hotel thinking of what next to tick off on my bucket list!

Thanks for taking the time to read my story.

Til next time


Chris

Dane and Rhiannon Wedding

 

 

Wedding Fashion Shoot with Amy Taylor

The setting was a sun filled day down at Cronulla beach,and the designs are by the amazing Amy Taylor.

She has now added Wedding gowns to her collection,and here are the results of her hard work.