http://www.commarts.com/annuals/2009-Photography
I am so proud to be featured in the Communication Arts Annual Photography Issue. The company I am keeping is extraordinary. The image selected is one of my favorite images of Randy Couture. It really shows who he is on so many levels. Thank you to Randy for his generosity and to Comm Arts for selecting me. I am blessed!
Cheick Kongo looks pretty intimidating. He is 6′4″ of MMA Heavyweight muscle. But with his black glasses, and huge smile, there is so much more to this French fighter. His body looks like it is carved out of granite, but he is shy and needed to be asked nicely to take off his t-shirt. He is the kind of fighter that gets under my skin and intrigues me because you see those layers. That he is tough and strong, is obvious….but he is funny, charming and smart. I love the incredible friendship that exists between he and Gilles. Cheick splits his time between his home in Paris and Los Angeles. 
I met Gilles when I offered to shoot a charity poker tournament. While the women were swooning over how gorgeous he was, I was watching his genuine warmth and grace. When he was on Dancing With The Stars, I noticed his best friends Cheick Kongo and Donal Logue all there front row cheering for him. These three seemingly different men intrigued me that they love and support each other all the time. Gilles and Donal are also front row at Cheick’s MMA fights. I think it is incredible how three very successful men are there for each other and their families. I set up a shoot with them for Fight! Magazine. We shot at The Nine MMA Gym, which is a great location. Gilles and Cheick were both charming and fun, as well as the obvious…gorgeous. When we wrapped I expected them to rush off to their busy schedules. Gilles was just starting on ABC’s Brothers and Sisters and is excited about his new venture. 
Instead they stayed and talked with the staff of the gym and signed the ring. Many thanks to Casidee and Don the incredible owners of The Nine, who made our shoot feel like we were home.
I am not sure why, but I love to watch some ones hands being wrapped. I am not sure if it is the intimacy of it, or the zen moment, but it fascinates me. Watching Freddie Roach get his tape ready and the care that he takes with each hand is a pleasure. Watching MMA guys wrap is a different process, there is no gauze. Everyone has their own colours and tape, in their unique ritual. Some boxers use gaffer tape or electric tape. How do you decide how you will have your hands wrapped? One trainer who boxed for years told me the story of how he was late to arrive at a boxing match so they wrapped his hands in a hurry and badly. During the match he felt his hands breaking, but kept fighting through the pain. By the end he couldn’t even feel his hands striking. He won, but both hands were broken. He only tried to fight one time after they had healed. The bad wrapping ended his career. So the ritual, is incredibly important.
You spend enough time in pro MMA gyms and you find out that they all have a vibe. It seems to come from the Fighter that heads the gym. Xtreme Couture, with the leave your ego at the door, motto is pure Randy. There is great camaraderie there, but every one is going Hard. Cung in the middle of shooting with me, had one eye on the guys he is training, yelling at them to go harder. Urijah’s gym, is the California Kid kick back fun gym. What a great life for a guy. They are super chill and hang out together, train all day, eat lunch in the sun outside the gym and party together when it’s time. The first gym I went to was Joe Stevenson’s. The guys did not know what to do with me, so decided to try and gross me out. They tried hard…I told them it was going to be impossible to gross me out…I live with a 15 year old boy. By lunch time they declared me cool, and a girl who can hang with the guys.
I saw Babalu at the Strikeforce Press conference and was intrigued. He is another fighter who seems full of contradictions. I love these men with layers to them. I wasn’t sure what I would get the day of the shoot. We met at Babalu’s Dojo in Cerritos. He was a little sleepy and down to earth. He grabbed some coffee and started working out with his great group of Brazilian fighters who meet at his gym. There were several black belt Jui-
champions there. They train at such a great level it was really fun to watch. They push each other to try new things, devise new moves to escape and laugh, smile and slap each other on the backs. One of the fighters came in with his new baby and everyone rushed to hug him and shower congratulations on him. Warmth and love raining down from these fighters. I love Babalus’s portraits. They have such a gamut of emotions in them. Super tough guy, laughing, a hint of trouble….it is all there wrapped up in a very cool guy.
We had a seriously fun trip up North to Urijah Fabers’ gym. Urijah and his gym have an super kick back vibe but still manage to be killer at the same time. Some one was sleeping on the sofa through driving disco music, and everyone brings in their dogs to hang out. Urijah has a whole posse of friends that all live and train with him and you can tell how tight they all are. There is no ego or attitude with any of these guys and they could be surfers as easily as top MMA fighters. After a morning work out everyone headed outside to the parking lot and ate and laughed in the sun, then back to training in the afternoon. We ended up staying an extra night to visit Urijah at home with the guys. Don’t miss Urijah’s next big fight in June, he is amazing to watch.
Cung Le is a marvel who defies gravity. He comes from the Martial Arts world and has crossed over into Mixed Martial Arts where he is undefeated. I knew he was famous for breaking legs with his kick, so asked him to kick the bag for a shot. I asked how much room he needed to run into the bag? None. How many steps? None. He just lifted directly in the air and kicked, and he kept jumping effortlessly and airborne. Cung has crossed over into movies and has four movies coming out this year. He was a pleasure to work with. He is kind and professional and fully game for anything. It was raining in San Jose and we went outside and had him walking the railroad tracks. No problem.
