Warrior Martial Arts is a busy gym that caters for several age groups, and the session that I'd been invited to come along to was aimed at adults of mixed abilities. The instructors and students were most welcoming, and didn't mind me getting in amongst the demonstrations and practices to carry out my test shoot:
Chris himself was happy to pose for a couple of portrait tests using just the available lighting in the gym, and these tests have given me a sense of the lighting that I'll need to take with me for the 'proper' shoot:
Whilst at the gym, I did manage to get a few spontaneous portrait shots which I'm particularly happy with, as well as the action shots. Sometimes when it comes to shooting a sport or activity, you need to have portrait shots to give some character to the people who provide the action, which is something that I always bear in mind when I shoot the hockey, so I applied the same principle to shooting the MMA session.
Many thanks to the staff and students at Warrior Martial Arts for their kind welcome and their cooperation!
Whilst driving to Warrior, an idea popped into my head. Once I'd gotten parked up, I sent a text to Yol to do a spot of research for me and provide me with a postcode to go into my Sat Nav, and she duly produced the goods! So, once the Warrior shoot was done, I jumped back in the car, set the Sat Nav to the postcode and set off to my destination: Jodrell Bank.
For those of you unfamiliar with Jodrell Bank, it's the site of the Lovell Telescope, one of the most striking man-made features of the Cheshire landscape. From where I was in Congleton, Jodrell Bank was a mere 15 mins drive away so I took the opportunity to go see what could be seen at night. The short answer: not a lot!
Jodrell Bank isn't lit up at night, so all that you can see in the darkness is an imposing black shape in amongst the trees, with a red light in the middle of it. The Sat Nav had delivered me right to the visitors' entrance in the backside-end of nowhere, and all I had to illuminate my way was the light of the moon in the clear skies. But that was enough for me!
I hadn't brought my tripod with me (rookie mistake), so in order to get a shot I had to balance my camera on top of a fence post, and use the remote control to trigger it. All I had to aim at was the red light atop the dark shape, that was all that was visible. So I just had to point, shoot and hope! I shot with the f1.8 35mm prime lens at ISO 200, and after a few test long exposures I was able to get a shot which I'm particularly proud of:
I'm kicking myself for not getting the 70-300 lens out and giving that a try, but I think that the fence post wouldn't have sustained the camera steadily enough. Next time, I'll take a tripod - won't be making that mistake again!
As I type this, the Phoenix are getting ready to face off against the Wildcats, and I'm having to miss the game. The reasoning for my absence is the snow that's been messing up the country, it's hit the Midlands fairly heftily and as a result the roads here are pretty hazardous. I spent yesterday evening shovelling snow with the neighbours and the snow was coming down faster than we could shift it, so we put out some grit and called it a night. Today arrives and the car is going nowehere, so here I am!
The dodgy weather did give me a chance to get a nice shot this morning though, as I opened the front door and shouted out to Lucy, who'd decided to brave the cold and head across the way to explore. I think she was just waiting for me to open the door and call her back in, judging by the speed with which she came hurtling back towards the house!
All of my non-hockey shots can be seen on my Flickr page here - thanks for looking!
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