UFC 127 was Saturday night. There weren’t any title fights, but nonetheless, it was still a good event. Dennis Siver v. George Sotiropoulos (in his home country of Australia too), Jorge Rivera v. Michael Bisping (after some serious trash talking on Rivera’s end) and Jon Fitch v. BJ Penn.
Every time a fighter’s pinned against the cage, my eyes drift to the photographers on the other side of it. As far as sports photography goes, I think MMA might be the most difficult to shoot. With soccer, football, basketball, etc., you’re really just following a ball with your camera. With fighting, no one knows what’s going to happen next, and everyone wants a contact shot. You know, when a fist is introduced to someone’s face. And if there’s blood splatter – even better. But these fighters move so fast, you’ve got to be one second ahead of them as a photographer.
Not to mention, most photographers are shooting through a cage. Usually this means using manual focus so the camera doesn’t auto-focus on the cage instead of the fighters behind it. It can be tricky to get a clear shot when you’re shooting through a cage. Luckily, SportsShooter.com has a discussion board where photographers can share tips on shooting UFC.
Here are some photos from UFC 127 by Josh Hedges (Zuffa LLC/Getty Images) courtesy of ufc.com.
Come back after UFC 128 SHOGUN vs JONES, March 19th, for my photo highlights!
the world through a wide angle 