MMA Fighter Tyra Parker

Mixed Martial Arts fighter Tyra Parker at The Hardcore Gym on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 in Athens, Ga.

Until a week ago, i had no idea that there were title fights for women's mixed-martial arts. And then i met Tyra.



I approached this with the usual difficulty of aiming to balance feminine beauty with athleticism. You go too far in either direction and you loose something, IMO.

I decided to start with the fisheye/ring-flash approach first. That was meant to be the fill light, but looked a little hot by 1/2 a stop. I had a strobe above her with a 1/2 blue & 1/4 grid as well. I like the ring of the ring light and it gives it an interesting feel. I went a few steps farther and went for the desaturated/high-pass look in photoshop thats all the rage.



Then i took the ringflash off, tossed on a 1/2 CTO and gridded that and went for the
entire side lit look.



From there i wanted something a bit more classical for a fighter, but also went for the desaurated look.




And we ended with one last one - i think the cage wires add a lot there.

Monday morning quarterback? A couple of flashes to highlight the cage might have helped, otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.