Photos: UFC 91 Randy "The Natural" Couture vs. Brock Lesnar

[ultravista]

Photos from UFC 91 are now available … featuring main event Randy "The Natural" Couture vs. Brock

Lesnar and co-main event Joe Stevenson vs. Kenny Florian.

UFC 91 Gallery
http://www.ultravista.com/g2/main.php?g2_itemId=33752

Galleries
- Rafael do Anjos vs. Jeremy Stephens
- Aaron Riley vs. Jorge Gurgel
- Demian Maia vs. Nate Quarry
- Josh Hendricks vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
- Tamdan McCrory vs. Dustin Haselett
- Joe Stevenson vs. Kenny Florian
- Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture
* pre-fight weigh-ins
* post-fight press conference

Check out the galleries for additional photos.

[ciddog91]

Nice job.......

[SmartWombat]

Ray, it's nice to see them without your overlay in the corner

I wonder what happened in #1, were you using flash?
Looks like you got blitzed by other photographers !
The blue shading on the right looks like flash with a tungsten balance, as if you were shooting natural light then you got flashed.
There's no EXIF in the photos you posted here, but digging in your gallery you seem to shoot without flash most of the time.
Interestingly it says "Light Source / White Balance = unknown Flash = Strobe return light detected" in the photo in your gallery - that makes me think the D200 got confused by someone else's flash.

I don't watch them on TV, so is #6 (DSC_3560) a key point in the fight?

Having to shoot through the chain link at that point is a problem in two ways.
First of all you're going to have to manual focus on the fighters because that pattern is likely to lock the AF. My eyesight isn't up to that
Secondly, it's black and shows up even when defocussed. A mid grey wouldn't be so intrusive in the image.
I think you did well to get a usable photo out of that.

[ultravista]

Thanks for the advise Paul. I do use flash at the press conference and weigh-in's. For this, I was about 30-40 feet away from the stage shooting with the 70-200mm f/2.8.

[SmartWombat]

Ah, so the heavy shadows on the background are likely from your flash, but the blue coming from the right is someone else's. I wonder if your flash power was cut because the camera detected the other flash?

[imdahman]

Hey you did a great job! I'm actually starting out and myself and will be doing an MMA show. I'd love some advice on shooting. I'm actually going to be right up along the cage so shooting through the cage will

Also, some suggestions on equpment like what DSLR to get and what lens? Since I'll be so close will a 28-70 do? Should I at least get a 28-150? And I guess I'll need a fast camera that'll let me take subsequent photos quickly?

[ultravista]

The 28-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 are mandatory for ringside, 300mm f/2.8 for auxiliary.

I am shooting a Nikon D200, it is a bit noisy over 1250 but does produce decent results. I've sold many photos from this body, the last was to ESPN of Ricky Hatton / Paul Malignaggi.

I have never shot through a cage, but my pro friends tell me the 70-200mm is way to go.