Dealing with some practical constraints (see ’Technical Notes’ at the bottom), certainly helped to improve my skills. While I did shoot in colour, I felt that converting some shots to black and white (in Lightroom) really worked in some creative scenarios.
Coaching
(and how it helped me learn the ropes)
Starting out, I had no appreciation for all the different (and complex) manoeuvres that club members were learning and practising. I certainly found it useful to pay close attention to the demonstrations given by the club coaches.
I was given the opportunity to get close to the action. Close enough to capture the detail, but not too close to interrupt or risk getting injured. I was looking for opportunities to learn the different body positions where I could focus on faces, which gave me an idea of where to position myself on the mat.
Practice makes perfect
It was one thing to take shots while a coach was giving demonstrations, but the pace certainly picked up when club members worked in pairs to practice. Things quickly changed and it helped to be agile to move around the mat to get the best possible shots.
My personal favourite is the middle image in the second row. It was obvious that the person on top was at a height and weight disadvantage. Look however how they got down REALLY low and adopted a wide stance.
You can see the intensity of the facial expression, and there was only one way to capture it …. get down in a prone position and keep the lens on the same level as the person on top.
Getting up close and personal on the mat
Observing the action
Not all of the club members where necessarily on the mat at the same time. Some were taking a breather, while others were taking an opportunity to observe the action in front of them.
TBD - observation
Intensity & Trust
It was obvious that the club members were very competitive - especially with people with evenly matched skills. Like an immovable object colliding with an unstoppable force. Those were golden opportunities to capture expressions of intensity. Despite how it looks, all of the members have an implicit trust in each other to know how far to progress.
Competitiveness and trust
Taking time out
As the training session progressed, the club members were really working up a sweat. For club members taking a ‘time out’, the first 10-15 seconds was the perfect time to capture candid (and intense) expressions of full-on effort and exhaustion.
Capturing the aftermath of full on activity
Leaving it all on the mat
The club attracts a diverse membership from all walks of life and age groups. Despite the competitive spirit on the mat, everyone had a huge amount of respect for each other.
Leaving it all on the mat
Fun and inclusive
It was obvious that the club members were having fun, judging by all the friendly banter. Everybody seemed to leave the session exhausted, but with a smile on their faces.
Technical Notes
I have NEVER done any BJJ photography before, and the lighting was less than ideal, but I found a way to get some respectable shots.
Bumping up the shutter speed was needed to capture the action, and there was a compromise for my lens aperture. While going for ’wide open’ at f2.8 would have let sufficient light in, this risked some of the subject detail being out of focus.
For the most part, I like to shoot in ‘manual’ mode (at least for shutter speed and aperture), but since this was my first time with this type of project, I switched the ISO to ‘auto’.
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