Guardian Camera Club: Lea on Sea on sports photography

Time To Hang Them Up: It's a bit obvious how this bout finished! Was a totally one sided fight unfortunately and as you can probably tell this guy was on the wrong end of everything. After the fight (beating) this guy was walking around the ring, bloodied shouting that he is retiring. Sport or organised thuggery? You decide
Photograph: Lea on Sea/Flickr

Karma: To me this shot shows that Karma exists even in extreme sports! Before every fight the fighters touched gloves apart from this one! The white guy (will change for names later) held out his glove but was snubbed, much booing followed from the pretty big and vocal audience. Not long after the black guy was in the position above and soon after was tapping out from a rear naked choke, much to the delight of the crowd. Good reminder that you shouldn't be cocky unless you really are extremely good (and even then you might still look like a plonker) Photograph: Lea on Sea/Flickr

Contact: Not sure how this one sits in the set, do wish I had a fast zoom (24-70 f2.8 would be nice) so I could have got both fighters in the shot, but as I was limited to the fantastic little 50mm 1.8
Photograph: Lea on Sea/Flickr

Left Hook: This is Iain Martell (throwing the punch) vs Joe Boobyer which was a semi professional fight (I thought this meant no head shots on the floor but I'm not sure as there was some). I know someone is going to say why haven't I cropped it in a portrait style, so two reasons 1 I don't like portrait (when viewed on a PC screen anyway) and 2 I like the empty black space on the right, it gives the guy about to be struck room to fall into once it connects (least I think so anyway lol). Oh Iain Martell won by TKO 4 mins and 4 seconds into the first round. Would say it's not as strong as the previous two though
Photograph: Lea on Sea/Flickr

Uneasy: I really like this shot and hate it at the same time, it makes me feel uneasy about the fear in his eyes, but I guess if that emotion can be conveyed in a photograph then we're onto a winner. To those who aren't initiated his is what they call “Ground and Pound”, another fighter is straddling him and landing heavy punches (and even elbows) to his head. I don't like this side of it but at the end of the day I was there to photograph what was going on rather than to have an opinion
Photograph: Lea on Sea/Flickr

Hello Ladies: This is Italian fighter Matteo Piran after his win against Alfie Slade. Wasn't camera shy so managed to take a bit time with this one. Got to love the nifty :D
Photograph: Lea on Sea/Flickr