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Ninja Maniacs

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of covering another UNAA Ninja competition in my hometown of Palmetto at LIVE Training Center. The UNAA is not affiliated with the NBC show, American Ninja Warrior, but it’s all the same people that turn up at these events to prepare for the big show. These are professionals at the top of their game and watching them perform is both exhilarating and humbling.

Anyway, I shot stills and video all weekend. The video is a quick 2-minute recap, and these are just a few of the 1500 stills. The rest can be found at the Live Training Center Facebook Page

Highlight Video

Some of the fun and stars of the Ninja community show their stuff.

Morgan Wright

Morgan Wright (aka-Moose Morgan)

Here Morgan Wright (aka-Moose Morgan) put on a perfect pouty face after an early end to stage two. Don’t be fooled by the tomfoolery, Morgan is a ham of a character and a fan favorite on the show. I can say he’s pretty much the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. No surprise that Morgan placed number one in his category.

Ashley McConville

Ashley McConville

At 19, Ashley McConville just returned from her debut on American Ninja Warrior 2019 in Atlanta. I’ve watched her perform in many events and it’s obvious she’s a rising star. In the spring I watch in amazement when she surpassed the men in a super-human feat of rope climbing. She knows how to bring the house down.

Kyle McCreight

Kyle McCreight

This year, Kyle McCreight was picked from a lottery as a walk-on for ANW Atlanta. Kyle McCreight is a regular at LIVE Training and arguably one of the most aggressive competitors in the sport. If I didn’t know better I would swear he’s the real-life Spider-Man.

Jason Kotzin

Jason Kotzin

Jason Kotzin is another amazing performer that had his debut on Season 11 of ANW in Atlanta. Jason seemingly came out of nowhere to captivate the audience and rival competitors alike. He places second overall and he has the battle wounds to prove it. He features prominently in the video above.

Caleb Bergstrom

Caleb Bergstrom

Speaking of rising stars, look no further than Caleb Bergstrom. His father is a show veteran and this year he competed with his sister in Atlanta. Now that Caleb is old enough to compete on TV, look for him to be a top contender. That aside, Caleb coaches many of the children in the juniors events and is a great role model.

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Ethan Surprenant

Today I’m continuing with another photo I shot last weekend at an athletic event in my home town. This is Ethan Surprenant of St Petersburg Florida who made it to the final round of the UNAA Qualifiers and placed third overall. Ethan is an explosive athlete and put on an amazing show.

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Ethan Surprenant
Ethan presses on with fellow athletes cheering him on

This shot was during the first round of the qualifiers. After maxing out his arms on a hanging traverse, there was no mercy waiting ahead. Next the salmon ladder, then rings and then an evil set of monkey bars that ascended up rather than across. Finally, the round ending in a warped wall with only four feet of runway. Ethan made it look easy as he seemingly defied the laws of both gravity and physics.

more from the UNAA Qualifiers in Palmetto FL

Camaraderie at the event was huge. As you can see here, all were watching with baited breath as judge Dan Lively (lower left) kept an eagle eye out for any disqualifying infractions. When someone managed to complete a round, the look of triumph on their face said it all. For the full video of Ethan’s epic run check out his FB link.

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UNAA Regionals

Over the weekend I was at Live Training Center in Palmetto to shoot some images of the UNAA Regionals. UNAA stands for Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association and here’s the link. This is Calle Alexander from Miami who made it to the third round. Here he’s dismounting one of the obstacles in a cloud of chalk. The next section involved a lot of hanging and so he had an abundance of it on his hands as he moved on.

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UNAA Regionals
Calle Alexander of Miami competing in a UNAA Regional event

This type of sport is not necessarily mainstream, but it’s become wildly popular due to the NBC Ninja Warrior series. Some of the competitors here have been on the show and are regulars each season.

links to the photos from the two-day event

There’s a real sense of community and camaraderie when the athletes get together. They are competing fiercely, yet everyone is cheering and high-fiving everyone else. It’s not easy to finish any one round and most don’t. But whether someone falls at the beginning or makes it to the end, they’re all roundly cheered.

It was a great weekend photographing the competition and more than anything I enjoyed hanging out with the amazing athletes of the ninja community.

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Better Than a Good Day at the Office

To borrow a saying from golf, a bad day at the beach is still better than a good day at the office. On the weekend there was a storm in the gulf, and whenever that happens it pushes waves into the coast. That’s a queue for local surfers, and me, your intrepid photographer, to show up at the south end of Bradenton Beach for a little action.

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Better Than a Good Day at the Office
Better Than a Good Day at the Office – Bradenton Beach

The waves may not be big compared to other places like California, but big enough to get the job done. Hurricane Nate was about four hundred miles east of here, but even at that distance it managed to create a nice little swell.

This is the first time I intentionally came to the beach to photograph surfers; at other times I’m usually shooting something else and just happen to get a few shots. This time I came prepared with a long lens to get in close.

I’ve photographed other sports and each type has a different set of tricks. The first thing I learned this day was that the angle of the waves dictates the direction of the boards. Basically it meant that from my angle the surfers would have their backs to me. There are little nuances to know about photographing each sport that never occur to you until you’re there. I learned a few things for the next time so it’s all good.

more from Bradenton Beach

Lucky for me I live in a place were I’ll have plenty of opportunities. However just standing on the beach with the waves at my feet, taking pictures of anything is a lot of fun. It was way better than even a great day at the office.

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Dale on the Warped Wall

Palmetto Florida. Recently I’ve been doing a few photo sessions with him to highlight some of his talents and dedication to health and fitness. This is a shot at the final instant of ascending the warped wall. Actually, this is the smaller of two warped walls in his gym. He can easily do both but we stuck with the small one because the perspective was better for this type of shot.

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Dale on the Warped Wall
Dale on the Warped Wall at LIVE Training Center in Palmetto Florida

On my blog I post mostly landscapes but behind the scenes I also shoot people or events, which, by the way, is a lot of fun. Aside from being fun, it’s also meaningful when capturing a moment in the lives of people in a way that will last forever. Anyway, I shot this a few months back in one of our earlier sessions using a couple of Profoto mono-lights and a Sony G-Master 80mm f1.4 prime. Basically the equipment lets me control the lighting and freeze the action.

Dale is a consummate gentleman and a fierce competitor. However he is also an inspired mentor, coach and motivator in his community. Perhaps he is best known in the growing community of OCR and Ninja Warrior competitors who regularly flock to LIVE Training Center to perfect techniques and obstacles for competitions and media appearances.

I’ve been attending his gym for boot camp and personal training for many years now. Despite my best efforts I still get my butt kicked by super moms at the 5:45am weekday sessions.

more people and portraits

Most of all, Dale is a proud father and loving husband; he and his wife are expecting a new arrival soon. Having an opportunity to work with Dale has been a blast, getting to know him has been a privilege.

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Park City Utah

Recently we drove through Park City Utah and stopped in at the Olympic training center. It was about eighty degrees outside yet skiers were practicing ski jumps at a specially constructed summer training facility. This athlete was practicing multiple rotations before landing in a pool of water. It was amazing because anyone could just walk up and watch and there were no crowds. Once I got over the surprise I setup to take some images sitting next to the pool.

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Park City Utah
Park City Utah where winter olympians train

After each jump the athletes would discuss the jump with a coach standing along side of the pool, then they would walk back up the ramp in their boots and carrying skies. I was thinking to myself the act of getting up to the launching point would be exercise enough, but from what I could tell they didn’t seem winded at all. I suppose that might be why they’re Olympic athletes and I’m not.

That aside it was a beehive of activity. Some athletes were working out on equipment; some appeared to be in rehab, ostensibly from recent injuries, and others were training on the ramps like this.

To be honest this was my first time seeing Olympic winter athletes in person. Normally I watch them on TV like everyone else, but being able to watch them train in the middle of summer was an unexpected surprise of our little day trip.

Some of my favorites

After watching for about an hour we headed into town for some lunch. With little shops and sidewalk cafes the town is pretty cool as well. Park City is an awesome place that reminds me a little of Banff, but different and unique. We only had a few hours but in that time we saw a lot. We decided right then and there we would make it a point to come back a stay longer.

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Last Rays of the Sun

Last Rays of the Sun
Kite surfers at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge                                            Order fine art print

On the way home this afternoon we crossed the causeway that leads to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It just so happened the sun was heading down and there were these kite surfers. I’ve taken these kind of shots before but each time is different and for me the rays of the sun through the clouds added an extra dimension of awesomeness. And if I thought this was nice, I can just imagine what these surfers felt as they soaked up the last rays of the sun.

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French Bullfighting

Yesterday we attended a form bloodless bull fighting indigenous to southern France known as Course camarguaise. Long story short, it's an elaborate form of tag played between trained athletes. The athletes are both human and bovine and if you are human you don't want to be tagged by the bull, that would be bad. I had no idea this even existed but the bulls are very well cared for and seem to enjoy chasing the raseteurs (human athletes) around the arena. All in all it was an absolute amazing spectacle, from the agility and speed of the bulls to the outstanding athletic ability of the raseteurs as they flew out of the arena to avoid the bull. Each bull spent about fifteen minutes in the arena after which he trotted back to his pen, in some cases quite proud of himself. Here is a Wikipedia if you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfighting#French
A raseteur leaps out of the area in a bloodless form of bull fighting known as course camarguaise.                           Buy print

Yesterday we attended a form bloodless bull fighting indigenous to southern France known as course camarguaise. Long story short, it’s an elaborate form of tag played between trained athletes. The athletes are both human and bovine and if you are human you don’t want to be tagged by the bull, that would be bad. I had no idea this even existed but the bulls are very well cared for and seem to enjoy chasing the raseteurs (human athletes) around the arena. All in all it was an absolute amazing spectacle, from the agility and speed of the bulls to the outstanding athletic ability of the raseteurs as they flew out of the arena to avoid the bull. Each bull spent about fifteen minutes in the arena after which he trotted back to his pen, in some cases quite proud of himself. Here is a Wikipedia if you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfighting#French

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Windy Day

Yesterday we had a bit of wind. By that I mean they were advising us not to drive over the bridge, trees were blown down and if you wore a hat you might have to chase it down the street. Which is another way of saying it was an awesome day for kitesurfing. This is at a point midway on the Sunshine Skyway where kite surfers congregate. I had it in my mind to check it out yesterday and I'm glad I did. It looked so fun that I might just have to try it out myself one day. You never know.

Yesterday we had a bit of wind. By that I mean they were advising us not to drive over the bridge, trees were blown down and if you wore a hat you might have to chase it down the street. Which is another way of saying it was an awesome day for kitesurfing. This is at a point midway on the Sunshine Skyway where kite surfers congregate. I had it in my mind to check it out yesterday and I’m glad I did. It looked so fun that I might just have to try it out myself one day. You never know.

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