Monday, 8 December 2014

On Assignment 001 – Evaluation Birmingham, Bristol or Cardiff

There have been a number of well known photographers that I have noticed covering Boxing subjects in the past, including Neil Leifer, Larry Fink & Al Satterwhite, having seen these images and wanting to head into sports photography in the future, I thought now was a better time than any to follow in the their footsteps. This was also an opportunity to work with a subject matter literally closer to home in Cardiff, recently there have been a number of successful Welsh boxers in the professional ranks, Joe Calzaghe, Nathan Cleverly & more recently Lee Selby, I thought that their success would have inspired a generation within South Wales and I began researching boxing gyms within the locality of Cardiff.

This is where I ran into some problems early into the project, had sent out emails to about 7 boxing gyms that I had located through WelshBoxing.org, I didn't receive any sort of reply for about a week, I had addresses for these gyms but did not want to waste a trip to Cardiff just to be refused access. I decided to ring some of the numbers that I had also recorded, about 5 of these numbers didn't even go to answer phone. I eventually received a reply off Terry Smith, who could not help me directly with getting access to the gyms, but forwarded my enquiry to the chairman of Welsh Boxing, Dave Francis who I ended up having a telephone conversation with, eventually leading to another dead end.

This was when I pulled the plug on Cardiff, It would have been great to cover something close to home, but after watching Lee Selby fight on TV, I didn't want to jump into my back up ideas just yet, and decided to research his background more intensely, he trained in a professional facility in Bristol, a quick google search and I contacted Bristol Boxing Gym, receiving a swift reply saying come down any time!

The first shoot took place on the 24th October, and I think it went well, I met some great subjects that had no qualms in me being there and in some instances played up for the lens. I photographed about 5 athletes in this session, training for up coming local fights, It was clear that the most interesting story was that of Chris & Duane Winters, who were father & son, training for his professional debut before Lee Haskins (Duane's sparring partner) international bout on the 5th December.

Technically I think that the images were strong, It was not the darkest environment to shoot but I did want to keep to higher shutter speeds in order to catch fast moving action inside the ring for example, meaning that for the most part the images are sharp but some of the images are noisy. Narrowing down the 200 photographs that I shot, I produced an edit of 20 images for feedback in class, and I became aware of images that will be appropriate for the narrative, shots that aren't appropriate for a smaller edit, mainly detail shots of items around the gym, which present lighting errors such for example reflections of the ambient light sources. Shooting in RAW I was also able to correct any exposure flaws & colour correction in Photoshop.

I had researched a large number of black & white images for this project but after reviewing the images from my first shoot, there are some vivid & natural contrast in the room, with some heavy background interest that I think would not be represented well in Black & White.

The second shoot took place on the 11th November, It was closer to the bight in December, so Lee was training without a head guard which was great to get better action shots in the ring. My last visit was on a Friday, but this time it was a Tuesday so Chris & Duane were not there, but I still managed to get some other meaningful images that can be used, new sparring partners that Lee is working with, different faces from last time working out around the gym, and finally some school children watching in on the sparring session. I knew from the last time that minute detail shots would not be great for the edit, so this time I wanted to focus more on Lee, his actions, and reactions of his training partners, which I think turned out well.

I was eager to narrow down an edit from both shoots, so the feedback in class was great help again in knowing where to split the images from each shoot. It was also helpful to hear Anthony's insight on which images should be cropped and where the frame should surround the subjects. This actually resulted in the final edit consisting of an even number of portrait & landscape images. I then wanted to nail down the order in which the images appeared in sequence for the slideshow. I think that my final choice works well, moving as a narrative when the captions are included. Starting with a general view, looking up to 'goal' of reaching success at this gym, with inspiration mottoes being clearly displayed. I then move onto the main figure for this story, Lee Haskins, and then his sparring partner, which leads onto the relationship between him, Chris & Duane. Chris & Duane themselves are products of what Bristol Boxing Gym has provided for the local community in Bristol, an opportunity for youngsters to get off the streets and involved through the Empire Boxing Club.

The captions for the final 8 images consisted of my research, including information from the Bristol Post & BoxRec. I also included items from my notes & observations during my two visits to the gym. I wanted to keep some of the captions brief so that they flow well with the images, but I still think that each of them do well to inform the viewer, not just describing what is in the frame. In reflection I would have liked to get some quotes from Lee, Chris or Duane, especially on the run up to the fight, towards the end of this training regime. To ensure that the images were correctly presented on Vimeo, I resized them to fit within a video frame, 1000x667 for landscape & 445x667 for portrait images. When being exported from Première Pro, I was sure to research what preset Vimeo recommends, so I decided to use the Vimeo HD H.264.


For this Assignment I think that I have produced a strong body of work that is appealing to look at in terms of stand alone images, and when context is provided from the captions, an interesting narrative emerges. I also feel that some aspects of the photographers that I have used for research & inspiration for this project is apparent in my final edit, although using much less profile athletes, such as the use of mirrors in compositions, tight portrait of Chris, use of bust background items and Lee sitting down with Duane. If I was to undertake this project again in the future, I'd like to get to know the individual athletes more, photographing their typical training day from sunrise to sunset, this could evoke a more personal story and a truer documentation of their passion & dedication for the sport of boxing.

Thursday, 4 December 2014

Slideshow & Captions


Bristol Boxing Gym from Lewis Mitchell on Vimeo.


1 -The Bristol Boxing Gym are soon to move premises from St Paul’s to Easton, providing facilities
that cater from both professional & amateur boxers across the South West Region. It is home for
West Country promotions, that have supported numerous world champions including Arian Stone,
Glenn Catley & current IBF featherweight contender Lee Selby.

2 - Bantamweight Lee Haskins is currently working through his training camp ahead of an
international clash with Willy Velazquez in early December. At age 31, he has recently moved up
weight divisions after enjoying success at English, British & British flyweight level, and is on
course for a world title shot in 2015.

3 - Lee has seen help through a number of sparring partners during this campaign. As the big fight
night draws closer, Robbie Turley, also on the card for the Velazquez bout has been brought in to
partner Haskins in the ring.

4 - Overseeing this training programme has been coach Chris Skemer. Who has previously been
involved with the Empire Amateur Boxing Club for youngsters, also based at Bristol Boxing Gym
with the aim of keeping kids safe & off the streets.
5 - Chris likes to get involved one on one with his athletes, focusing closely on Lee Haskins' left
handed Southpaw stance.

6 - Chris has also coached his son Duane through the amateur ranks and is gaining experience
sparring with Lee ahead of his professional debut on Haskins' card. Known as the 'Gasman' He has
been shown great support from his beloved Bristol Rovers FC, and will enter the ring bearing their
Blue & White colours.

7 - Children can join Empire Boxing from age 10, and have the opportunity to learn core values of
Boxing from professional coaches as they train within the same building & share the same
equipment with top level fighters.

8 - Lee, Duane & others conclude the sparring session by making use of the circuit training options
provided by Bristol Boxing Gym, where a varied personal training services are available for those
wanting to keep fit.

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Second Edit

After feedback from Anthony & the others in class I have narrowed down my first edit into 8 final images that have been cropped & adjusted in Photoshop. The next step will be to work out an order of appearance for he slideshow & narrative that will be conveyed through captions.










Monday, 24 November 2014

First Edit

I've narrowed down shots from both visits to the gym to 16 images, the brief requires 8 images so I still need to get rid of half the images shown here.

+ Action Shot of Lee Haskins jumping
- Bin is included in the composition
*Crop to isolate Lee from rest of Image
+ Another Action shot with background details
- Distracting bright vending machine
* Burn tool to remove light
+ Perspective shot during training
+ Instruction shot during training
* Crop to remove distractions & utilise mirror
+ Portrait of coach in focus
* Crop for tighter image
+ Lee Haskins training shot
+ Engaged kids
* Crop to remove distractions
+ Using of apparatus
- Boring image
+ Engagement between trainer & Lee, details on gloves
* Crops for tighter image
+ Action shot during training.
+ Detail shot possible first image. 
+ Using of apparatus
+ Engaged portrait
* Crop?

+ Training shot of Lee
- Boxing Mask
+ Engaging portrait of Lee
* Crop to remove distractions?

Second Shoot - Bristol Boxing Gym - 11/11/14

On Remembrance Day I headed back to the gym for a second shoot, There were a few new faces to photograph which was nice. Lee Haskins was there again which was great so I could get more shots of his preparations for his fight on the 5th December.




























It was good to photograph some of the other items being used around the gym, Now I need to edit down both shoots together.