Bellator 132 - Cageside

I was lucky and get to get hired to shoot some MMA cage-side at the Bellator MMA event last night. I was using the Canon 1D Mark IV and 24-70 II and 70-200 II. It was a tough shoot for sure. I have shot a few local event but these are the best in the world! Fast and hard to see whats next for sure. Luck has to be on your side to get them right in front of you and the ref out of the way. The fence is a huge pain you have to work around for sure. Here are my few of my top shots.

A few more...

And a few more....

Nice work.

Really good stuff here... Congrats!

You certainly managed the fence well-if I did not see it behind the ref I would swear there isn't one. Great Shots.

Very nice. I will be at Bellator in CT next month. I am hoping to be cage side. nice work

Nice work! I miss the fact that they moved their offices out of Chicago. In their earlier years, they ran shows in the area on a regular basis. It was so easy to get a press pass back then. I'm guessing today, not so much.

Great shots! I've shot a couple local shows as well and man, I'm a little envious that you got to shoot Bellator!
I can only imagine how much better lit a big promotion like that was to shoot.
You only using the one body? How'd you managing switching between the 24-70 & 70-200?? Any tips or tricks you can share??

Thanks for the kind words guys. As far as how I did the two lens I just risked it all and used one lens for one round and one for the other depending how they were and where they were. I moved lens a few times in a round if it went to the ground or stayed on the cage. As far as tricks..the biggest thing is to go and shoot the prelims. Get your camera all set up nothing auto at all lock it all in and run with it nothing changes at the events so that really helps out. Shooting 70-200 was a hard thing to do but if you can read the fighters it helps for sure. I really think that the 135 F2 would be the best lens to take and I will be taking it next time for sure. Oh and as far as lighting goes it was sooo good. ISO was 2500-3200 with 2.8 to 3.5 at 1/1250 to get the action so really really happy about that.

RussellJ wrote in post #17397907
Thanks for the kind words guys. As far as how I did the two lens I just risked it all and used one lens for one round and one for the other depending how they were and where they were. I moved lens a few times in a round if it went to the ground or stayed on the cage. As far as tricks..the biggest thing is to go and shoot the prelims. Get your camera all set up nothing auto at all lock it all in and run with it nothing changes at the events so that really helps out. Shooting 70-200 was a hard thing to do but if you can read the fighters it helps for sure. I really think that the 135 F2 would be the best lens to take and I will be taking it next time for sure. Oh and as far as lighting goes it was sooo good. ISO was 2500-3200 with 2.8 to 3.5 at 1/1250 to get the action so really really happy about that.

Thank's for the reply. I was just curious how you did things. I'm shooting another show next month and I've been on the fence about renting a second body. I think I may go that route since these regional shows here have a smaller cage then the big leagues and it's almost impossible to get decent shot with the 70-200 if they're anywhere closer then the middle of the cage.
Think I'll be doing a lot of switching between the 24-70 and 70-200.

Man, that's killer that you were able to have your ISO so low! I've had to bump mine up to 12,800+ just to squeak out 1/800-1/1000 of a second.

Any more photos you can share??