not WWE, WWF, NWA or WCW or Mid-South

I got my first taste of shooting high school wrestling on Saturday at the Cabot North Arena. It was the first time I had ever witnessed any type of amateur wrestling in person and I must say, I loved it. I wasn't feeling well so I left early but I got some good shots, I think.
The lights in the gym aren't bad so I started out shooting with a 100 2.0 lens at 3200 ISO on the 40D. I was shooting at 1/400 of sec but I felt like I was limited with the 100 mm focal length. Other photographers, like my buddy Bryen Ford, suggested using the strobe and I had contacted by Cabot coach and he told me I could do "whatever I wanted." But after shooting HS bball on Friday, I left my synch cord for the pocketwizard on the ledge at Carlisle's Raymond H. Brown Gymnasium. So, that was out.
I put my 430 EX flash on my camera, set it at 1600 ISO and decided to try to bounce it off the high ceiling. I was pleasantly suprised by the results. One thing I've got to learn is to be patient with that setup. It is the same deal as shooting with the Alien Bee B400. You have to shoot basically one frame at a time and not blast away like I would when it is direct on-camera flash.
I hope to shoot more wrestling later on this season, probably at the state finals. Let me know what you think.
Mark


with flash


without flash at 3200 ISO

Without flash at 3200 ISO

With flash

With flash

With flash

With flash

With flash

Latest work

Here is selection of pictures from work in the last week. Some where shot with an Alien Bee B400, some were shot available light and some where shot with on-camera flash.

Arkansas Razorback basketball

I shot the Arkansas Razorbacks' basketball game with North Texas at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock. The Hogs won the game, pulling away in the second half but they did trail at halftime. Maybe it was a bit of a hangover after beating No. 4 Oklahoma on Tuesday of this week.
Michael Washington is a beast. Courtney Fortson is for real. Marcus Monk is a difference maker and John Pelphrey is the man. It was the first time I've ever seen him in person and he would be worth the price of admission. He even got a technical today. It was fun.
Now the Hogs play Texas in Fayetteville next week. It will be the first time the Horns have played in Fayetteville since Nolan and May-Day beat Sweet Tom and BMW in 1991 at Barnhill Arena and I was there and it ruled.
My shots were all that great today but I had a good time. Let me know what you think.
Mark

Strobed basketball

The Lonoke Jackrabbits basketball team opened the 2009 season on Monday night then played DeWitt in their conference opener on Tuesday. The 2008 Lonoke team, which won the Class 4A state title, http://markbuffalo.blogspot.com/2008/03/state-champs-1.html was honored prior to the start of the game.

Most of the time, I shoot baskeball with the 70-200 2.8L but I tried something different by using a 16-35 2.8L lens from the corner of the court. I had the Alien Bee B400 mounted in the ceiling. I used a set of PocketWizard Plus II to trigger the flash. I was able to get some good stuff with the wide zoom and I will probably try it again sometime.


(Canon EOS 40D, 16-35 2.8L zoom, 430EX flash


(Canon EOS 40D, 70-200 2.8L, Alien Bee B400 with PW Plus II)


(Canon EOS 40D, 16-35 2.8L, AB B400)


(Canon 40D, 70-200 2.8L, AB B400)


(Canon 40D, 16-35 2.8L, AB 400)
I ran this picture in the Lonoke Democrat this week at six columns wide

Har-Ber 21, Cabot 17

The Har-Ber Wildcats rallied from a 17-7 deficit to beat the Cabot Panthers 21-17 in the second round of the Class 7A state playoffs on Friday night.
And it was cold...freakin cold. This was the coldest football game I've covered in several years.
I was disappointed to see my team Cabot come up short. I think a lot of those kids... they deserve all the accolades they get. but now I get to see my alma mater, Carlisle, play in the playoffs next week at Bigelow.


Cabot's Spencer Neumann returns a kick against Har-Ber


Har-Ber scores the game-winning touchdown against Cabot.
Both photos were shot with Canon 40D, 70-200 2.8L, 430EX flash set a 1/16 power. Camera was at 1600 ISO, 1/250 sec. at 2.8.

Overdue update

It has been almost a month since I posted an update. I have been very busy with football and now basketball is starting up. I shot two nights of basketball then had to worry about rain for football on Friday night.
On Wednesday, I had three Cabot kids sign national letters of intent. During the ceremony, the shutter went out on my Canon EOS 40D camera. I called Canon, overnighted it there that afternoon and got it back on Friday afternoon, just in time for the football game and rain.


Carlisle's Monie Cohen goes up for a shot against Bald Knob. It was shot with the 40D and an Alien Bee B400 aimed at the top of the key. I used PW Plus II

Same setup as the first shot.


Carlisle opened the playoffs with a 35-8 win over McCrory. As you can see, it was raining and it was annoying. I set the camera on 3200 ISO, 1/250 sec at 2.8 on my 70-200 lens. It wasn't ideal but I didn't want to use the flash since I had forgotten my poncho that I use for my flash setup. But the photo will be usuable for the paper and I kept my camera dry!

Bison vs. Des Arc

The Carlisle Bison lost its first game of the season on Friday as the Des Arc Eagles won 16-12. As most of you know, I cover Cabot, Lonoke and Carlisle and it really stinks that the two best games I've been to this year, both Cabot and Carlisle lost!






This should have been a sign