“RNP the Blog”

I promised another post on the my experience at the Titan Fight Night a week or so ago.

The fighter that I had the most time with was Lalo Robles. He was the main event of the evening. Born in LA and now training in Kansas City (with John Brown at the Turner Boxing Club) he had the largest and most passionate crowd of the evening. He was confident without being cocky. He was approachable and totally open which is always great in a subject. I was able to document a great deal of his fight preparation, the fight itself, as well as post fight. About the only shot I didn’t get was him walking out of Memorial Hall at the end of the night.

As you can see it was quite a night, punches, tape, and sombrero’s…in case you are curious Lalo finished off his opponent with a TKO in the third round of the fight. Thanks to Lalo and his entire crew for allowing us behind the scenes and special thanks to Mark Williams for his assistance in every regard on this project.

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On a recent trip back to my old stomping grounds of Phoenix I was commissioned to shoot recording artist J. Miller. These images will be used for his upcoming LP.

I shot with J. back in March and I was flattered that he wanted to work with me again. We did two separate sessions together one in studio and one out on location. The video is strictly from the location shoot which took place near South Mountain Park in Phoenix. To avoid the heat we got started very early in the morning. Call time was 5:00 a.m. at the location. Been awhile since I have watched the sunrise.

The background music in the video is J’s. You can see a “live” video version of him here. My boy has some serious chops, looking forward to seeing what the future holds for him.

Big thanks to J. and Anita Malik (for being on shine control) and special thanks to Chrissy Gerik for her assisting and video help.

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Through a series of relationships that I couldn’t accurately recreate I got all access to a boxing event in Kansas City, Kansas this weekend. I believe the official title was “Titan Fight Night” at Memorial Hall.

As I have talked about previously one of my favorite things about being a photographer is the access that my camera occasionally gives me. My camera has gotten me in front of everything from a World War I tank at the Liberty Memorial to Miss America and now I can add to list behind the scenes with a group of professional boxers.

The boxing world (much like the MMA world that I documented in my “before and after series”) is foreign to me which I think is part of the reason it interests me. In some regards it is like traveling to a foreign land and taking in the different culture around you. The sights and sounds were different and I really enjoyed being a fly on the wall taking in the scene.

The fighters were all very welcoming to me and allowed me to shoot whatever I pleased.

I am still working through my edit of the images but wanted to share a few early selects. This series will eventually be an addition to my “Projects” gallery and I have at least one more blog post coming on the evening…stay tuned.

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I was one of the featured photographers in the latest Wonderful Machine Blog post. If you want to see lots of great photography check out their main website here. And feel free to hire me if you like.

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I have made a conscious effort recently to put more energy and resources into some personal projects. As a young photographer it took me some time to realize that I don’t need the latest and greatest gear to take my photographs to the next level. Just as a writer needs to consistently write, I need to consistently shoot. As elementary as it sounds it is a challenge sometimes to make the effort to shoot purely for yourself. Whether it is guilt about spending the money on a self funded project or struggles to carve out the time in a busy schedule.

I actually have three different personal projects in the works right now. Most of which I am just getting started on but each of them are focused around some similar themes.

One of the projects I am just starting on is Truckers.

I have always been fascinated by characters and I have always believed that everyone has a story to share. With a huge assist from my father in law who works at an asphalt plant I was able to capture these characters on film. Let me be clear that I don’t mean characters in a demeaning manner. These people have my utmost respect, I think they are fascinating and interesting both personally and visually.

I plan on spending some more time at the plant capturing images and sharing these wonderful characters with the world. As always, stay tuned…

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One of my favorite places in Kansas City.

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