Seconds Out... Round 1

Round 1.

Last week (November 2022) I had the privilege of shooting West Aukland Amatuer Boxing Club's inaugural "Home Show" and I want to share some words and some photos from the event.

It is important to note here that this was my first attempt at combat sports photography and, while I am thrilled with how it went overall, there were definitely some lessons to be learned ahead of the next one:

**Lesson number 1** - don't expect downtime. I had naively assumed that I would have a few minutes here and there in between fights; time to reposition to capture ring walks or grab some celebration/consolation shots of the fighters returning to their corner. This wasn't the case. Good to know.

**Lesson number 2** - have a second camera body and lens. This might seem obvious and, you'd be right, it was. But I didn't have the luxury of buying a new camera. I considered hiring one but, in the end, chose to fly solo with the X-S10 and borrowed a Nikon DSLR off my Dad in case of emergency. Having a second Fujifilm camera would have meant I could have shot with identical in-camera settings and just had one with a 35mm and one with an 85mm lens. This would have opened up so many options from a creativity point of view and also enabled me to be much more flexible. As it was I spent the night with the 35mm glued to the camera and, on occasion, I noticed it's lack of reach.

**Lesson number 3** - be prepared for difficult lighting conditions. It's incredibly easy to see elite level boxing on the TV and assume that all fights are lit with row upon row of powerful spotlights. In reality this isn't the case. The event I attended was held in a traditional working men's club and was lit exclusively by whatever lighting they already had installed. This meant that, from a photography standpoint, it was a challenge. Fortunately the gritty/grainy images produced by the X-S10 at high ISO actually suits my style and the way I intended to shoot this event so I didn't have a problem with that. However, tracking a boxer around the ring and firing the shutter just as their head passes one of the huge overhead panel lights, plunging my image into complete darkness was particularly frustrating. Luckily it was fairly rare.

**Lesson number 4** - be prepared to miss. This was, perhaps, the biggest surprise for me. I've watched boxing for years but it took being there in person to appreciate how fast it can be. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem but when you're crouched down to ensure paying spectators can still see, ducking and diving to try and avoid the ropes obscuring your shot and, generally, just not reacting fast enough, it's amazing how many shots you miss. Even firing 10 frames per second doesn't guarantee that you'll catch that one moment of glove on chin.

Despite all of that, and I realise it may read like the night was a disaster, I got some images that I am incredibly happy with, I documented a huge milestone for a young boxing club and I delivered an enormous amount of photos for them to use going forward. All in all I would call that a success.

Finally (if you've made it this far, thank you!), I wanted to leave you with some of my favourites from the night. Enjoy!