I may be known primarily for my portraits of the top fighters, but I also photograph beauty and women.Here is a magazine spread with the beautiful and amazing Beverley Mitchell.
I don’t just shoot fighters…
Thanks to everyone who came out to Gallery 135 in Portland for my show!
Thanks so much to all who came out on First Thursday for the opening of my show at Gallery 135! What a great crowd of people who came in to view. It was so fun talking to all the fight fans and non fight fans about all the really amazing people I get to photograph. Special Thanks to all at IDL for curating the show and to Cash for taking awesome pics…
My Upcoming Gallery Show
http://satoriengine.com/gallery135/
I am so excited to bring these amazing athletes to the world of fine art! I hope everyone in the Portland area will come out. If there are any fighters in the area training, please stop in. It will be a wonderful night. I can’t thank IDL Worldwide enough for curating this event.
Cash’s Birthday
Next week my son Cash turns 17 years old. He is an almost 6’3″ ,145 pound rail of joy. As my Mama used to love to say…he is a long cool drink of water. He is that refreshment to my heart and soul, on a hot day in the world at large. He inspires me daily with his love and enthusiasm. One of my proudest moments is watching the ease with which he tells people he loves them. He is an open loving soul in a world where so many people are closed and guarded. I have learned as much from him as he has from me on this incredible journey we are on together. Once when he was 8, we were in Hawaii trying to find a hidden trail a local had told us about. The sky opened up and it started to pour.I suggested we bail and go back to the hotel, my mind focusing on the mosquito population and their love for my blood. Cash looked at me and said we may never be here again…we need to find this place and enjoy this moment. Right after we found the trail head, the sun came out and we had the most amazing hike into waterfalls, and jumped from rocks in to cool pools. He brings that love for the moment at hand.I had to learn to be a fighter for him, something my pacifist soul had never mastered. Along the way I started photographing all the amazing fighters I work with today. Not a coincidence. I absorbed their heart and endurance and learned to bend to the forces, but never break to them. To become stronger in the fire like metal and yet keep a tender heart because I had this son to remind me daily of all the good in the world. When he calls to tell me he is dancing in the rain like I taught him, I am so grateful. I am proud and grateful to be Cash’s Mom….he is my favorite human and he quenches my soul. Happy, Happy Birthday!
Cain Velasquez
I met Cain when Fight Magazine sent me to San Jose to shoot the incredible roster of guys training at AKA with Crazy Bob Cook. Cain was training and he was going hard. My first impression was this guy is Tough. In a room full of the top MMA fighters training, to be singled out as such is a statement in itself. Cain wasn’t laughing or smiling he was hard, tough and serious. Any one sparring with him was going to get his full force- no holding back served up. The first day I was at AKA, Cain sent a message that he didn’t want to shoot, but he would the next day. Day two I was wondering if it was going to happen, he didn’t look at me or acknowledge I was there. When he was done he gave me ten minutes. We did the set up shots I needed to deliver and then I asked him to stand in front of the rainy window light. Somehow the soft light accentuated how tough he is and that was the magic moment. I knew not to try to get him to smile, it wasn’t in him. I was getting the essence of who Cain is, pure, tough, strong and determined. My favorite image from this moment was used as the cover for Fight Magazine celebrating Cain as Fighter of The Year. I was at the UFC fight when he defeated Lesnar. I knew he was going to bring it and loved that he advanced when others would have been tentative. I was on my feet yelling and cheering until my arms were tired from clapping. I have never seen an arena light up like that. After the fights when we were walking to our cars I was happy for all the Latino’s who were so proud to have the first Latino Heavyweight in history. I said in Spanish…I am as happy as you are Cain won today!
Antonio Margarito
I headed down to Oxnard to shoot Antonio Margarito training for his big fight against Manny Pacquiao last week. The fight is only a week out in Texas. I really liked Antonio and Roberto Garcia his boxing coach. Antonio came over, shook my hand and said hello. He is humble and down to earth. He is smiling and laughing and loving this road. His wife Michelle is there quietly watching him train. In a break between bells, he checked in with her and joked. Antonio is hungry for this redemption win, to prove he is a champ again. There is no ego at the Oxnard Boxing Academy, just hard work. Antonio is ripped and ready for Saturday. I think he is the fighter who can bring Manny a challenge at this point in his career. Kudos to Roberto for keeping the gym open to the kids in the less fortunate neighborhoods of Oxnard to have a place to blow off steam and stay safe. I’d love to go in one day and do portraits of all the young kids. 
Manny Pacquiao Biography is out!
The new biography on Manny Pacquiao is out. I am proud to have shot the cover image. It was pretty cool to see it on the tables at Barnes and Noble. I am looking forward to sitting down and reading it.
MMA UK did a cool interview with me
Fedor
I shot Fedor Emelianeno on the day after his only loss. I sat waiting in San Jose for two days before the fight for our shoot. It kept getting bumped back day after day. The first day he was sick of the media. Day two he was praying with his priests during our shoot time….The upside was I sat in a war room with the Showtime and Strikeforce people and got to know them all. They are a great tight team. I was told he would shoot the morning after the fight. It’s dicey to say you will shoot a fighter the day after a fight. If they lose they are understandably down. If they win they have celebrated all night. Of course everyone thought Fedor would win, so sure…. a day after shoot will work. Then Werdum won in the first round. I thought, there goes my shoot. I expected Fedor to cancel the shoot after he lost the fight, so was waiting on tenterhooks on Sunday. I was waiting in the grand ballroom of the LAX Hilton set up and hoping Fedor would shoot. He showed up with his entourage that included his wife, and two Russian Orthodox priests. One look at the priests and I wanted to shoot them. They have faces out of an old novel, not of this century. I am still thinking about how the priest was rocking the new G4 Iphone and I am on a Blackberry…. Fedor was quiet and contained. His face had no swelling, but a few bash marks on his nose and a broken blood vessel in his eye from being choked. We did manage to get Fedor to smile and I am not saying how…..but certain words like cheese, don’t translate into Russian. Fedor was in good spirits and I think will welcome the challenge to come back and face Werdum again. He has a fire now…
Nick Diaz
Ok….let’s be honest. I didn’t plan on liking Nick Diaz. Fight magazine has tried to get Nick to shoot a cover for the last two years. I was told it was harder to get a photo of Nick Diaz than Sasquatch. While vacationing on Catalina, I got the call…we are good to shoot. I wake up at 5am and hustle up to San Jose, rent the car..drive the hour, all good. Set up and ready to shoot….wait for Nick to show…. Wait for Nick to show some more….Still waiting for Nick to show….now calling, texting and low jacking to track him down. Stories start drifting in about his many no shows, or shows and then walking out after deciding he didn’t like the photographer or interviewer. Five hours of waiting….my assistant is sleeping in the car, and I am getting to know Cesar Gracie and the crew really well. Cesar is cool, and so were the guys at his gym. Hallelujah Nick has been found ten minutes away and is being lured to the gym. He arrives and I shake him and say ” Aren’t you excited to be here?” total deadpan response, amid held breath by everyone at the gym. Did I not get the kid gloves memo…got it…but not running with it. I was expecting a quick in and out with Nick. I showed him on camera what I was shooting and he loved it. He doesn’t want to be portrayed as a thug any more and loved the sexy hot images. He asked if he could jump around and kick. His leg reach is epic and a challenge to get in the frame. He was leaping and flying and I saw the athlete come alive. We connected and Nick was in my lens. He stayed until I said we had the shot. I think every one in the gym was shocked. Nick smiled. I like Nick Diaz.
