Studio Portraits – October 2008

There was a bit more buzz around the Cage Gladiators with this particular session as there was a big star from UFC called Rico Rodriguez (fourth guy down). He’d been really big in the series in America and came over for a one off fight with the Gladiators series. Nice guy too. There were a couple more guys who had a bit of a model air about them too (Tim and Ashleigh) and then there was Carl Noon. I’ve never seen a guy with such brawn. No way would I want to face him in a fight!

Studio Portraits 2 – July 2008

Some more Gladiator portraits from a year ago. I’ve been working on book ideas today, a long process but highly enjoyable.

Studio Portraits 1 – July 2008

I’ll do a couple of posts of these (another round soon) but these were from the first studio shots I did with the TV guys. It was a long afternoon/evening doing them but I kept hoping I’d got some decent photos. There were about twenty fighters to go through and I couldn’t take shots during interviews so it was just shoot and hope. Many of these photos formed the portraits for the Cage Gladiators promo material.

Behind The Scenes Of Filming For Cage Gladiators

This was where, for me, the Cage Gladiators became really interesting. For the fight on 26th July 2008 (is that really a year now?) a production company, Big Tank, came over to film the MMA fights for ITV. I was taking pics at the Weigh Ins thinking I was getting nothing interesting when the director set up for some profiles shots which would be inserted prior to each fight. I saw the lights and things get set set up and thought I should hang around! I asked Rob if it was okay to take pics when the mike wasn’t live and being a goodun he let me get on with it. I’ve got some very funny photos of the TV crew doing mock interviews and fights aimed at some TV exec but probably best not to put them up – could prove libellous.

The Masque

The Masque (formerly The Barfly, formerly, er, The Masque) is being done up at the moment by new owners (hence the name change). Been a while since I’ve done some band shots but it was a really good gig with some fine performances by the Skinny Boys, The Killjoys and The Metropolitans. When I lfet the venue I packed up my camera gear, checked my pockets and could I find my keys? Yes, the keys for my car and house were nowhere to be seen on me. Panic set in – there were a lot of people in the venue and all sorts raced through my mind. I went back into the pit, trampling on everyone and still couldn’t see the keys. Now in total panic mode, I switched on the torch on my phone and had a good search. Fortunately, I saw a flash of key under the pit bench and I lived to fight again. Oh, the relief! Straight to a local supermarket and got some beers, they’ve never tasted so good.

Cage Gladiators Second Time Round

First Gladiaotrs was in March 2008 and this was swiftly followed by another event in April. I was much better prepared this time (I had a chair to sit on) and had a better idea what to expect. There was one nice bit in an interval when another photographer (Jimmy Page) got up to photograph the two Cage Girls. For some reason there was also a fashion show in another interval.  I also remember a rather nasty injury to a French fighter with a suspected broken pelvis at the time (though it wasn’t as bad as first feared).