Trade Secrets: 'To say that I was pleased is an understatement...'

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2005-07-18

Trade Secrets: 'To say that I was pleased is an understatement...'
Thierry Gourjon's boxing image is the first in a series of SportsShooter.com features called "Trade Secrets."

By Thierry Gourjon

Photo by Thierry Gourjon

Kevin Kelley (R) is caught by Felix St. Kitts during their 8 Rounds Jr. Welterweight fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 5, 2005. Kelley won the fight by a 8th round TKO.

The Russians were in town (March 5, 2005) and I was shooting at Madison Square Garden. Although this wasn't a very big card boxing wise, (the main event was a fellow by the name of Sultan Ibragimov (14-0-0 12Kos) fighting Al "Ice" Cole (34-13-3 16Kos) who had no business being back in the ring), I was looking forward to another night of shooting people trying to knock each other out. It turned out to be a "dream night" as many images made it to my final portfolio.

My main assignment was to cover the return of Kevin Kelley (54-6-2 36 Kos) against Felix St. Kitts (12-4-2 7Kos) for a local New York newspaper. Like so many former athletes who don't know what to do with themselves once retired, he was making a comeback attempt after a few years as a civilian.

I was hoping that because of the relative anonymity of all the Russian fighters on the card, ring side would not be the usual nightmare: 8 to 12 shooters squeezed on each side of the ring having to breeze in synch and getting to know each other in ways that many would frown upon. Luckily my assessment of the media coverage was correct and I even had the rare luxury of being able to choose my spot ringside.

Since Kelly was fighting out of the red corner and I wanted to shoot close ups in between rounds, I positioned myself slightly to the right of that corner, marked my spot and started to prepare my gear: Two Nikon D2H bodies, one with a 17-55 mm and the other with a 28 -70 mm, a few 2.0 GB Sandisk Extreme III and a couple of lens cleaning cloths as blood as sweat have an uncanny ability to find the way to the front part of your lens.

The fights were televised so I knew my light should be decent: 1000 ASA, 1/400s at 3.2 was my final read. Focus mode set on "AF-C", Frame Rate on "Continuous Low", White Balance on "Auto", Contrast and Sharpening on "Normal". I usually sharpen afterwards, especially since I shoot RAWs +Jpegs, but that night I forgot to change the setting to "None". The White Balance being on "Auto" instead of "Tungsten" allows me to have my final images a touch on the warm side, which I find more pleasing. I usually try to shoot as close as possible to f 4 to give myself a little more depth of field. Many prefer the classic settings: 1/500s at 2.8. I only use it when shooting with a longer lens (70-200 mm) when you really need the extra speed. Since I often try to incorporate some of the surroundings (referee, ropes, lights...) I rarely shoot with a long lens: This image was shot at 30 mm on my 17-55 mm which is fairly typical for me.

I've always liked shooting boxing as close up as possible. Either while looking through the viewfinder or sometime simply holding the camera just beyond the lower rope, lens facing upward. In between rounds I will often sneak my camera (prefocused and set on 17 mm) in between the legs of a corner man or trainer and take a few shots. While a risky maneuver I've gotten quite a lot of interesting images that way. When the fight is on I wait for the fighters to get close to me, the closer the better. If the ring is a high one, as it was that night, it allows me to keep shooting even when the fighters are almost above me with my lens just under the lowest rope, slightly inside the ring, my neck painfully bent as backward as anatomically possible.

As the fight had gone a few rounds, I hadn't gotten anything special so I decided to only focus on Kevin for a while. As if on cue, the fighters started dancing in my corner. At one point, Kelley's opponent stood to my immediate left, outside of my field of view, as they started trading shots right by the ropes. I had Kelley filling most of the viewfinder and I "sensed" (for lack of a better word) his opponent move. I fired twice out of pure reflex before retreating extremely quickly to avoid being kicked in the lens/face as Kelley stepped forward. The first image was Kelley getting hit; in the second shot he was countering. For the record, he won the fight with an 8th round TKO.

I did not review my images immediately so I only realized what I had when downloading them. To say that I was pleased is an understatement as I let out a loud "YES" as the image appeared on my screen: It was full frame and everything worked. Upon review the only thing I wasn't happy with was the spotlight to the right of Kelley's neck, which was distracting. But since the other spotlight to the very right of the image balanced it, I was a happy man. A quick levels adjustment (+1/3 stop), a little color correction for the yellow and the image was sent to the paper.

I thought I had finally gotten one for the ages; I guess I was misguided: I called my writer the next day to see what he thought. His exact words were: "Oh yeah, not bad... You've done better..." For an instant I though he was either joking or had not seen that particular image. He wasn't joking and had seen the picture; so we agreed to disagree. I still believe he was just having a very bad day. Live and learn...

Thierry Gourjon is a freelance photographer based in New York City.

"Trade Secrets" is a series of educational features where SportsShooter.com members reveal the inside-information about how they were able to create a specific image (or two.) To nominate an image for this feature, please send a message to the SportsShooter.com admin staff here: http://www.sportsshooter.com/contactus.html The SportsShooter.com admin staff reserves the right to accept, or not accept, any nomination.

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Gourjon's member page