Boxing Photos: December 15 At Sosua Bay Casino

Ken

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I've posted photos in my SmugMug photo gallery:
Boxing - KenDePreePhotos' Photos | SmugMug

This was my first experience and I learned a lot. I went to the November, 2012, evemt but had a camera malfunction during the first round so didn't get any experience that night.

Photographing boxers is difficult. You have to deal with light which may be very bright in the center of the ring but less so near the ropes. So if you adjust the camera so you don't over expose when the fighters are in the center of the ring, then they will be in darkness, so to speak, when near the ropes.

Additionally, you have the ropes to contend with. When you are following the fighters, trying to keep them in focus, you often pass over a rope, which causes the camera to focus on the rope instead. This means the fighters are likely to be blurred.

Additionally, the colors may not look good because of the light.

Then there is the movement of the fighters and trying to keep both properly framed in the view finder.

Finally, there is the referee who is moving with the fighters, sometimes blocking your view of them.

I was shooting in what they call continuous shooting or burst, meaning that as long as your finger in on the shutter button the camera keeps clicking up to the maximum allowed by the particular model you have.

I was also shooting in RAW, rather than jpeg. The advantage is that all the data is preserved so you can do much more correcting in post processing than when using jpeg. The disadvantage is the files are much larger and you can shoot considerably fewer in burst mode than when using jpeg (or jpg).

I took more than 1000 shots and posted just 20 in my gallery after weeding out the clinches (there were a great many) and those that were not usable. To get the 20, I converted many to black and white. if the color was bad, for example, but the action was of interest I converted it to B&W. I don't see that as a problem, however, because at least in some cases I think the scene is more powerful than it would have been in color, even good color.

But take a look. I hope you find the photos of interest.
 

david_

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Dec 8, 2012
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Ken,

For your first time shooting boxing, very impressive. There is one I especially liked in there, it was color. Your post processing sometimes makes them almost look like paintings, really cool.
 

Ken

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Ken,

For your first time shooting boxing, very impressive. There is one I especially liked in there, it was color. Your post processing sometimes makes them almost look like paintings, really cool.

Thanks, David. Which photo did you especially like?

Do you shoot boxing?
 

david_

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Dec 8, 2012
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Thanks, David. Which photo did you especially like?

Do you shoot boxing?

Number 5.......... No, I don't shoot boxing, but I'm going to buy my first dsl camera before I get down there full time. Then start taking photos as a hobby. They way I see it, you could really stay busy with photography as your hobby down there, everywhere you look it seems would make a nice photo.
 

keepcoming

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Not a big boxing fan but the photos are really good..I really like the black and white photos..I do like the low blow one....
 

SKY

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Apr 11, 2004
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Ken,

Could you give us a report on how the whole even went? Full house, number of bouts, good time or not,etc?
 

Ken

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Ken,

Could you give us a report on how the whole even went? Full house, number of bouts, good time or not,etc?

I think DavidZ and others that were at the fights are better able to give the report. My attention was on my camera.

From my perspective, the bouts were too short, the fighters spent too much time in a clinch, at least one fight (females) was obviously a mismatch, and too few real blows were struck

The audience was enthusiastic, the boos were long and loud when it seemed the decision went to the wrong fighter, very few seats at the tables were occupied, and there was room for more on the chairs.

It was an entertaining activity, but not world-class boxing.

Having said all that, I am hoping there will be future fights and plan to attend if there are.
 

DavidZ

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Aug 29, 2005
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I second Ken's comments...

The competition has gone down in each event, as has the attendance. I don't think they do much advertising...a few posters around Sosua would go a long way...

The scheduled start time was 8:00pm, first fight started at about 8:40...not bad.

There were six fights, four male, two female. The first five fights were scheduled for only 4 rounds, I think the final was scheduled for 10...it was supposedly a title fight.

The first fight ended in the second or third round due to a disqualification, the challenger was disqualified for too much clinching I think.

The second and fourth fights were females and were total mismatches..it honestly looked that there was one real boxer, one girl they picked up in the 'hood...both fights ended in 1st round TKO's - both had the best action of the night though.

The third fight ended with a TKO when one of the boxers was up on one knee after being knocked down, but didn't want to continue. I think that was the "low blow" fight. I also think he realized he couldn't clinch his way out of the fight.

The fifth fight ended with the local "favorite" winning an unpopular (with anyone who wasn't from Sosua or Puerto Plata where the boxer was from) decision. As Ken mentioned...there were a lot of boos from the crowd... The winner had a knot on his head the size of a small child...not from a punch, from a rather aggressive clinch.

The final fight ended with a TKO in the second or third round when the challenger had a cut on his head, I think he bobbed when he should have weaved...or clinched.

I may be off in the order of the fights, but you get the gist of it...

I'd say apart from the two female fights and the one low blow, there were maybe a dozen solid landed punches the whole night! There was so much clinching, most fights looked more like a dance or a shoving match than a boxing match.

I doubt they sold more than 10 "VIP" seats at $100 US...which is no surprise considering the seats directly behind them were 1000 pesos and 2 rows behind those were 500 pesos! I'd say overall it was about 70% sold out. Probably due more to the lack of advertising than the fight card or lack of tourists.

All that being said, I also agree with Ken that I will gladly go again...still worth every peso for a night out doing something different...and the worst seat in the house is probably 100 feet from the ring...and the cuba libres were strong and only 100 pesos!
 
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SKY

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Apr 11, 2004
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I went to the first event they had a few years ago. That one was packed and there were several very good fights. I don't think they have much money to pay fighters now, so there is basically no talent available. But a fun night always anyway.