I cover a fighting competition. The ring is essentially a smaller version of the UFC/WEC octagon style cage. The organizer had platforms welded onto four of the uprights, two for video, two for photography. Gives a nice overhead view, doesn't obstruct the fans any more than the uprights already do, and keeps the ringside free for additional commentators, photographers, etc.
Having been on board since day 1, I've been able to cover all of the events to date. The video crew and one other photographer have been there with me since the start. Having seniority, we were supposed to have the four platforms. Key to note: the lighting has been VERY poor for many of the events. You're lucky to shoot at 1600 or 3200 ISO, f/2.8, and get 1/300 (which is a bit sluggish considering the subjects).
SO, go to get up to my platform, and there's someone already there. I was polite, said I was sorry, but I had to boot them off. To which I got the astounding response that the promoter "told me I could shoot from here". Ran it by the promoter, he said to just split the event and trade off every few bouts. I think he was just trying to avoid the confrontation, so that was understandable.
During the second intermission (there were quite a few fights), she came up to me and asked if I could give her a hand. I was astounded with what she said next. "I'm shooting in sports mode, but everything's still coming out blurry."
Up to this point, I hadn't really looked at her gear. She was shooting w/ a D40 and a kit lens. I'm having a hard time with lighting with a 40D at 3200 ISO and an f/2.8 lens. So, thinking back to how I had to cheat when I first started out, I told her to throw it to her highest ISO, set it to manual at the lowest aperture she could, and do whatever shutterspeed it could handle without being too underexposed. Her response: blank stare. I'm all Canon, and wasn't sure how to manually set her D40 (not familiar w/ the controls), so when opportunity presented itself, I kinda threw my hands up and put her off to a guy there w/ Nikon gear.
Well, fortunately, I found a means of getting above the top of the cage to get some good shots. I don't like shooting through the fence, as people have P&S's that light up the fencing and make it really tough to get a good shot. Even above the fence with good gear, I had a pretty tough time getting keepers. I can't even imagine what this girl got.
Hopefully, the promoter/owner/HMFIC goes through all of our shots and sees the difference in what he can expect when he hires someone that doesn't have the right equipment or the right know-how.
I'm still somewhat dumbfounded that it all went down the way it did. I guess I can't be angry about it, since it was his call for where we'd be shooting from, but wow. Hopefully he takes a good look at what he didn't get from her, and learns his lesson from it all.
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