ONE Fighting Championship - Warrior Spirit

About a week ago I had the chance of shooting for a major MMA event --- the ONE Fighting Championship - Warrior Spirit held at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil. I felt privileged to have been given access to a photography area in the arena quite close to the ring which gave me better photographic opportunities compared to even the VIP seats. Also my cousin Ashraf was kind enough to lend me his D7000 and Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8, a combination of which gave me the ability to shoot zoom in lowlight conditions where flash photography is not allowed. I used quite a high ISO, generally 3200 and above for all these shots, but the Nikon D7000 handled it perfectly well without too much noise.

Behold, some of the shots I managed to take of the bouts.

WELTERWEIGHT CLASS

Steven Durr of the USA grappling Samir Mrabet of Belgium...

... but in the end, Samir Mrabet managed to convince all the judges that the match was in his favor.

FLYWEIGHT CLASS

Malaysia's Saiful Merican (black shorts) tries to take down Tok Sophon of Cambodia.

Saiful dominates most of the match with Tok Sophon.

With a bleeding cut above his left eye, Tok Sophon lost the match to Saiful Merican by judges' unanimous decision.

Malaysians: Gianni Suba vs Chen Yun Ting

Gianni Suba won the match by TKO.

FEATHERWEIGHT CLASS

A.J. Lias Mansor vs Melvin Yeoh, both from Malaysia.

Lias won the match by judges' unanimous decision.

MAD RESPECT FOR THIS MAN --- he announces that he will donate all his winning prize money towards helping the victims of the recent typhoon disaster in the Philippines. Article here.

 LIGHTWEIGHT CLASS

Malaysia's Peter Davis vs. Egypt's Alaa Mazloum

Peter Davis managed to win the match through submission by rear naked choke

HEAVYWEIGHT CLASS

Americans Chris Lokteff and Tony Johnson's fight got bloody really quickly

In the end, Lokteff scraped the win by judges' split decision

MIDDLEWEIGHT CLASS

Brayan Rafiq (France) sizes up Leandro Ataides (Brazil) at the beginning of their match

Rafiq manages to deflect a kick from Ataides

The match ended with a win to Leandro Ataides when he managed to punch Brayan Rafiq to KO.

CATCHWEIGHT CLASS

A lot of punches and takedowns during the match between Yusup Saadulaev (USA) and Adriano Moraes (Brazil)

It was quite a gripping match between the two MMA fighters

The match was too close to call, but in the end the judges gave the match to Saadulaev by split decision

I also managed to spot some familiar faces in the arena and after the event.

Jason Lo, CEO of TuneTalk

Moots! of the Malaysian band Pop Shuvit

Moots! was cool enough when I asked to take a picture with him!

For more photos from the event, you can visit my FB page at Ihsankhairir Photography. Please support me by Liking the page as well!

Cheers!

-ihsankhairir-

I Am Officially an Uncle

My dear sister Kim gave birth to her first baby two weeks ago, which upgraded everybody's statuses to uncles, aunts, parents and grandparents.

Introducing the latest member of our family, Muhammad Hakeem bin Mohd Ariff.

Yeah somehow, when I was home for the weekend, he seemed to have no trouble sleeping through all the commotion and noise of the hundreds of guest who came to visit us. For most of my waking hours at least, he was always comfortably snoozing away.

This baby is born to a pair of doctors, so I hope his parents' smarts are passed down onto him!

P/S: I have lost the ability to write properly. Not blogging has killed my penmanship and my literary prowess (I don't even know if I am using the correct words).

Happy Merdeka, Malaysia!

Last night was Merdeka Eve for us Malaysians. Every year at midnight of 31st August, Malaysians celebrate the nation's Independence Day with family and friends, traditionally at locations of interest such as Merdeka Square and Putrajaya.

The Putrajaya International Fireworks Competition 2013 kicked off last night during Merdeka Eve with team Malaysia's brilliant display of lights and colors. I took this chance to further my photographic explorations with my first attempt at multiple exposure photography to capture the brilliant and vibrant fireworks display at night. I took a lot of photos, but for now let me share just one of them...

Click on the photo above for a bigger view!

I shall update this blog with more photos later with explanations of how I shot the fireworks photos and some of the post-production involved. Until then, Happy Merdeka, Malaysia!

P/S: Happy Independence Day, Trinidad and Tobago (this one is for my dear friend, Kristen!)

Wishlist for the Big Three-Oh

I'm not sure why I avoided making a birthday wishlist this year. Maybe it's that small desire for little surprises here and there, which would be of much delight for someone like me.

But then again, a wishlist would simplify things, and is more practical and useful. Plus my sister requested it. So here goes:

1. A 13" MacBook Pro --- probably not gonna happen. But a 30-year-old man can only wish.
   
   

   

   Image from technologytattle.blogspot.com

   
   
2. A better smartphone --- the one I currently use is a Samsung Galaxy Mini, which has horrible internal memory, I can't do most of the stuff I wanted to do with it. I can't have Facebook installed without the internal memory running out. The same goes with Twitter and Instagram. It used to work well with those apps, but the current updated versions of those important apps freeze the phone and eat up all the internal memory, so I had no other choice but to uninstall all those apps in order to keep the phone working. Now it's only good for calling, and text messaging. In terms of a smartphone: useless.
   
   

   

   My almost useless smartphone, the (old) Galaxy Mini. Image courtesy of theunlockr.com

   
   
3. A speedlight flash that works off-camera with the Nikon D60 --- examples are the Nissin Di622 and the Nikon SB-700. Of course, the Nikon would be the best choice for me. The ability to do off-camera flash photography is very important for my photographic explorations, so this is why it's in the top 3 of my wishlist this year.
   
   

   

   Nikon SB-700 photo courtesy of kenrockwell.com

   
   

   

   Nissin Di622 photo courtesy of amazon.com

   
   
4. Custom-made dress shoes ---  I have abnormally wide feet, so most of my office/dress shoes are too long at the toes, and I often bang them or trip on them while walking up stairs.

   

   Shoes like this one would wear at the tip in no time. Photo from slaters.co.uk

   
   
5. A manual transmission gear knob --- something that fits in the color scheme of the interior of my current car (silver or dark grey). The current gear knob in my car is standard Proton issue... the rubber parts are breaking down due to the intense heat I suppose.
   

   

   An example of a gear knob for those of you who might not know. Image from rimmerbros.co.uk

   
   
6. A better (more updated) DSLR --- like the Nikon D7000. Not so high in the list because my D60 still works fine, but I could really use the better low-light performance and the bigger resolution.
   

   

   This camera would work with non AF-S lenses too. Image from mynikonlife.com.au

   
   
7. Anything that would help with my doing my job as a lecturer. Examples:
   - A batch of red pens
   - A presentation slide remote control
   - A small but durable pendrive
   - An iPad (yeah right!)
   
8. Equipment for working out at the gym, especially those that help prevent injuries, like:
   - weightlifting gloves with wrist support
   - ankle and/or knee supports
   
   Prior injuries in my left ankle and my right wrist have made weight-training and running on treadmills almost unbearably painful, which in turn causes me to dread going to the gym even though I really need to work out.
   
9. A nice dinner out with good company --- yeah, I'm running short on those.

Or anything nice, simple and thoughtful.

Here's to a hopeful thirtieth year.

-IHSAN KHAIRIR-
16 Feb 2013