It’s a little known fact that both Erinn and I are accomplished sumo wrestlers. Believe it. In fact, both of us hold silver medals from an officially sanctioned California Sumo Association tournament. While this is old news to us, I figured it’s about time I shared this tidbit with the rest of you, before it’s ancient history.

During the fall of ’09, Erinn and I set out to attend the Shuubun (fall equinox) sumo tournament at the “Dohyo of Dreams” in Garden Grove. We’d been invited by U.S. Heavyweight Sumo Champion Dan “Sumo Dan” Kalbfleisch after I’d asked him to sit for a portrait shortly after meeting him at a sumo demonstration at Venice Beach. He happened to be participating in this tournament the following week and thought it would be a great place to shoot, as well as to get some photos of the wrestlers in action. (You can see the portrait here.) Of course, I thought this was a brilliant idea, but at the time had no idea what I was getting us into. My first goal was to get a portrait that I liked, plus Erinn and I also thought we could collaborate on a story on the sport. When we got there, I set about lighting the portrait against the backdrop of a garage, which was decorated with Japanese script that I’m told translates to “Dohyo of Dreams.” The dohyo is located in Jim Lowerre’s backyard, behind his suburban Garden Grove home and, I believe, owes much of its name to the Kevin Costner classic, “Field of Dreams.” “Build it and they will come,” was the famous line, and it appears they have. Not in droves, but enough that the venue hosts annual spring and fall equinox tournaments as well as practice sessions. At least it did. An old link I had showing the dohyo is no longer active.

After the shoot they realized that there was only one female participant present – a 10-year-old girl – and turned to Erinn to see if she would be willing to participate in the tournament in order to give the girl a competitor. Caught a little off guard, she agreed. Saying no would of course send the little girl packing, so what choice did she have? Besides, how hard could it be for an adult woman to wrestle a 10-year-old girl? They went about signing her up, weighing her in and fitting her with a mawashi, the standard loin cloth worn by wrestlers.

This was pretty funny, I thought, watching her get ready. I didn’t expect that a minute later they would be convincing me to do the same. Uh oh. With my background in photojournalism, I usually try not to get involved in what I’m shooting. Often times that’s for ethical reasons, but it can also be for the simple fact that it can prevent me from doing my job. But, despite a moment’s hesitation, I couldn’t pass this up. We weren’t there working for anyone and when would I ever have this chance again. Suit me up.

Seeing as I didn’t bring my own, they were kind enough to lend me a pair of shorts to wear under the mawashi they lent me. How do you make a man in a mawashi look more ridiculous? Make him wear pink shorts underneath. After we were both fitted we went through a training session, first outside the ring with the referee, and then in the ring with Sumo Dan himself. You don’t realize what you’re really up against until you find yourself face to face with a 300+ professional, who, by effortlessly leaning into you causes you to buckle as you simply try to hold your ground.

Fortunately, neither of us had to actually wrestle Dan. After our training, which included a routine of tossing salt into the ring to purify it, squatting, stomping, clapping your hands and then raising them to show you are unarmed, we stepped out of the ring and waited to compete. While not competing, I was of course shooting while Erinn took notes and interviewed wrestlers. Then it was time to wrestle.

Erinn was up first. Her competitor nearly equaled her in size. The daughter of one of the male competitors, this was not her first time in the ring, and she quickly took Erinn in the first bout. Erinn stepped up and was able to push her out of the ring on the second bout, but lost again in the third. A valiant effort and enough to earn her second place.

Then it was my turn. Erinn grabbed my camera and I stepped into the dohyo. There were just enough men that we could have two weight divisions. Myself, another man in his 50s and a third approaching 80 comprised the lightweight division. My first competitor was the younger of the two, who effortlessly knocked me off balance by grabbing my belt and lifting as he pushed me backwards out of the ring. One of the keys to sumo, I learned, was keeping a low center of gravity. This I do not have, and lifting on my belt was enough to completely take away any chance that I could push back. But I had my revenge. Not on him, but on the 80-year-old. I shouldn’t be proud of that, but I am. You gotta take the victories where you can. We squared off and, using my reach and the fact that I was more than a foot taller than him, I overpowered him forced him out of the ring. Despite his overwhelming defeat, he was all smiles.

Following the sanctioned competition, I wrestled one more guy just for fun. Despite looking like a sumo wrestler, he was actually rather new to the sport and had traveled with his sister from New Mexico to compete. Someone volunteered me as someone with whom he could get another round of practice. I was given some tips on how to use his inexperience to his disadvantage, but my own lack of experience combined with his mass were enough to assure him of the win.

As this was an official event, a ceremony was held at the end of competition, and medals were awarded. Both of us proudly took our silvers and posed for a photo with our weight divisions and again with the whole group.

I did get some photos from the event that I liked, but it’s fair to say that my work did suffer from participating. But screw it. We medaled in a sumo tournament! I’ve had conflicts that have prevented me from going to some recent sumo events, but I’m hoping we can pick this up again and publish a piece at some point. I’ll be sure to share when we do.

Traceur Brent Steffensen at 1320Main Studios, Venice

Traceur Brent Steffensen at 1320Main Studios in Venice.

I had a unique shoot with parkour specialist (a.k.a. ‘traceur’) and gymnast Brent Steffensen this week at 1320Main Studios in Venice. If you’re not familiar, parkour is urban freerunning, in which traceurs move across typically urban landscapes by running, jumping and climbing over anything in their way. It’s pretty impressive. Check out Brent’s stunt reel to get a taste.

I first met Brent a month ago after photographing him as he was doing corkscrews for a television crew on a grassy berm by the Venice Skatepark. I was just out shooting street photography, not paying much mind to the fact that there was a giant obstacle course set up nearby where contestants were auditioning for American Ninja Warrior. Upon talking to him I found out he was a contestant. The program is based around an extremely challenging obstacle course competition in Japan. Qualifiers in the American version go on to compete in Japan, where few Americans have ever completed the course. That’s an okay description, but follow the link if you want to know more. Anyway, I’ve recently been doing more studio photography at 1320Main and Brent took me up on my invitation to come shoot sometime. To my surprise, when we finally hooked up he asked if I minded if a television crew from the G4 network came along to document the shoot for part of a day-in-the-life segment they were doing on him for the show. Sounded fun to me. And it was. Monday, a crew of 4, plus Brent showed up and we had a great time shooting him doing corkscrews and back flips in the studio and up on the roof. He’s an amazing athlete and it was fun just to watch him go airborne with nothing more than two quick steps. The only thing I wish we had more of was time, as the crew was on a tight schedule. But we’ll shoot again soon. I have several ideas that I think would combine to make a great series of images. And they tell me the show will air on the G4 network and possibly NBC sometime later this summer. I’ll be sure to mention it when I hear.

On a technical note (tune out here if you’re not a photo nerd), the only thing more that I needed was a faster strobe, particularly for the studio shots. Freezing motion with strobes is only possible if the strobes have a fast enough flash duration to only expose the subject for 1/500 of a second or less. This is particularly necessary when someone is doing flips, as the head and feet are whipping around at extremely fast speeds, in which case you need strobes with a flash duration of at least 1/1000 of a second. I shot this with a borrowed Calumet pack as key and my White Lightnings as fill, but I’m not sure that either were fast enough. Thus the motion blur on the feet. It’s not entirely a bad thing, as the blur gives a sense of him flipping through the air, but ideally I would like to freeze it. Should I have done this for a client I probably would have rented a Profoto rig or something similar.

Windsurfing at Huntington Beach

The Exposure section of the July issue of Outside magazine features a double truck photo I took earlier this year at Huntington Beach. On my way home from a meeting with an ad agency in Irvine I decided to swing by the beach to look for photos. It had been raining unusually hard that day all across Southern California and I figured the late afternoon sun that had started peaking through the storm clouds would make for some great images. When I got there the sun only lasted 2 minutes before an approaching set of clouds darkened the sky, ruining the beautiful light that had drawn me there. To my surprise though, as I walked along the beach near the pier, I saw a couple kites dancing around the gloomy skyline to the north. I figured they were only power kites being flown from the beach, but as I approached I saw that there were actually a couple of daring kite surfers taking advantage of the choppy water and high winds that had probably deterred the majority of their brethren. I figured they weren’t going to be out there for long and started jogging up the beach to get a closer shot. My timing was perfect, as they lasted only another minute before packing it in.

I blogged a couple of other photos from this experience just after it happened, but since this one just made it into print I figured I’d share it as well. The Exposure page is an ongoing feature in the magazine that focuses on unique outdoor photography and shares the photographers’ camera settings and a brief interview about the photographers’ experience. This one, besides being a nice stormy weather shot, I think had particular interest to them because of the recent relevance of offshore drilling. I hadn’t put much thought about it when taking the shot, but it’s amazing to see how close to the shore California once allowed wells to be drilled. Apparently, until 2008 there was a ban on new offshore stemming from a 1969 oil spill that leaked 4 million gallons of crude off the Santa Barbara coast. The ban was allowed to lapse after “drill now” pressures in response to skyrocketing gas prices. However, members of California’s congress are now pushing to reinstate it in light of recent events.

Exposure usually only features one photographer, from what I’ve seen, but this month there are four, all related to water. If you turn the page you’ll see a fantastic aerial photo of the Colorado River in Canyonland’s National Park by fellow Aurora Photos contributor and National Geographic regular Peter McBride. Not bad company to be in!

Bicyclists and beach goers, Venice Beach

A young man is detained after a large brawl on Venice Beach

This Memorial Day weekend was marked by various activities, ranging from laying out on a crowded Venice Beach to a crowd-stopping brawl and arrest Sunday evening on Windward Avenue and capped off with a huge feast and ping-pong tournament at the home of the very talented chef of the Fraiche restaurant in Culver City. Taking photos all the while of course.

Most notable and unusual of course was the brawl. I had just stepped out onto the boardwalk looking for some evening photos of Memorial Day visitors when suddenly the police started flashing their lights and bleeping their sirens from the direction of the beach patrol station, which is right at the end of Windward Avenue, marked by its classic arcade architecture and suspended trademark Venice sign. The majority of them went straight up Windward, while some of them drove across the grassy park area, evidently to head off anyone trying to get away by heading north. I decided to follow them up Windward to check it out and was there as a handful of young men started sprinting. The police were already blocking off the street by that point and quickly ran and tackled them, at least three that I saw, onto the sidewalk, before lining them up against the high red wall that borders the adjoining compounds owned by notable neighbor Anjelica Huston. I was able to get a few shots off from close proximity before the police gained control of the situation and kicked everyone off the entire first block of the street. They held the boys there up against the wall for a solid hour as I and numerous others watched from adjacent corners on the other side of Pacific Avenue. I hung out watching for awhile and then got bored and headed home. On the way, I came across another two that had been detained next door to my place on Market St. I took a couple photos and watched as the police stood them up one at a time and took pictures of their tattoos with their cell phones.

I later read that the brawl was thought to include up to 70 young men, ages 14-17. Twenty were detained and only one arrested. They still don’t know what the cause of the fight was, but are investigating it as possibly gang-related. More here.

The rest of the weekend was pretty typical and enjoyable. A fun night Saturday was had at our neighbors, who hosted a party around the much-hyped UFC fight between Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans. I know nothing about this sport, and find it pretty brutal, but had a fun time cleaning up in a pool with a lucky wager on Evans it the third. He won by decision, but I was closest! Sunday was spent walking around photo hunting along Venice  Beach, mixed in with a little bit of laying out in the sand with Erinn. Then Monday at the home of the chef and wife’s house near Beverly Hills. We were treated to a feast of curried chicken and fish, lemon-stuffed, roasted chicken, mixed greens and strawberry shortcake, among much, much more. Not traditional BBQ material, just some great food the chef grew up eating and wanted to share. No complaints here. Now it’s Tuesday and back to work I go.

A boy runs from his older brother after stepping on his back as he lay in the sand.

Memorial Day weekend basketball, Venice Beach, Calif.

A boy plays on the rings at Muscle Beach, Venice, Calif.

Young men arrested on Windward Ave., Venice Beach, Calif., 2010

Police push back onlookers while arresting brawlers on Windward Ave.

Onlookers stay behind police tape after a brawl in Venice, Calif.

Onlookers stay behind police tape after a brawl in Venice, Calif.

Young men arrested on Market St., Venice Beach, Calif., 2010

Hostess picking grapefruit for cocktails, Los Angeles, Calif.

Billiards and Budweiser, Los Angeles, Calif.

Ping pong!

Beer and poker chips, Los Angeles, Calif.

After a meeting with an agency in Irvine today I decided to drive up the coast from Newport Beach to Long Beach just to explore. When I got to Huntington Beach there was a gorgeous light coming from behind an approaching storm cloud that forced me out of my car just south of the Huntington Beach Pier. Just north of the pier I spotted some kites and figured they were just power-kiters out on the beach, but then I saw one pop up in the air and realized there were actually people out kite surfing, despite, or more likely because of the large choppy waves being produced by the stormy weather. I hustled over their way and despite their moving quickly away from me I was able to catch up enough to get off a couple shots just before they packed it in as the black storm cloud got too close for comfort. I’d hoped to get one of them popping out of the water or a close-up of them battling the waves, but was still happy with what I got. I then spent a few minutes with John Moynihan, 24, as he packed up his gear and walked his kite back to the car. A self-described ‘gypsy sailor,’ Moynihan lives on a sailboat that currently resides in nearby Newport Beach. After this I parted ways with him. And just in time, as the rain started to come down and I was a quarter mile away from my car. I packed up my gear and headed back. We’ve had an unusual week here with daily storms and even a few tornados touching down. There was even one in Seal Beach today, which I drove through after shooting this, but I didn’t see anything. I’ve got a couple more stormy weather photos I’ll put up tomorrow or the next day.

U.S. Heavyweight Sumo Wrestling Champion Dan Kalbfleisch

Sumo Dan is U.S. Heavyweight Sumo Wrestler Dan Kalbfleisch of Burbank, Calif. I met him while shooting a sumo wrestling tournament at Venice Beach a few months back and tucked his name away as someone whose portrait I’d like to shoot someday. I finally got around to asking him a couple weeks ago and he invited me to come out to the “Dohyo of Dreams” the following weekend for a tournament they were having in a guy’s back yard in Garden Grove. He also invited me to stick around and shoot the tournament. Excellent timing! I gladly took him up on the offer and drove down to the D.O.D. with Erinn the following Saturday so we could work together on a story about the tournament. I’m behind on editing the tournament shots, but will post them and a better description of the event when I finish my edit. For now though, here’s Dan in front of a garage decorated with a big white sign that reads “Dohyo of Dreams” and a bunch of smaller signs with the names of previous year’s tournament winners posted along the top.

I’m not done posting from the Maine trip and a few other things that happened after, but I thought I’d jump ahead and post some images from a big event here this past weekend. Saturday marked the opening of the new Venice Skate Park, a $3.4 million project 12 years in the making. This was a monumental event for skaters here in Venice, aka Dogtown, the place where modern skateboarding was born. If you’re not familiar with the story, I highly recommend checking out the Stacy Peralta documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” which traces the history of the Zephyr surf team’s transition into the Zephyr skateboard team as they reinvented skating by incorporating surfing maneuvers and the surfing lifestyle to the once wholesome but staid sport of the 1950s. From that group came legends like Peralta and Tony Alva, the sports first to achieve rock star status, which lead to the next generation of superstars like Tony Hawk. Many of the original members and team founder Jeff Ho were in attendance, though I don’t recall seeing the two guys I mentioned. However, the importance of the realization of this park was evident by the huge crowd that turned out for its unveiling. I had a great time standing alongside everyone as skaters took turns dropping into the giant bowl while others watched along its rim. As this is only a block from my door, I’m looking forward to stopping by on a regular basis to check out the scene. Hopefully it won’t always be as crowded as it was Saturday though!

I had a fun time checking out the U.S. Sumo National Championships at Venice Beach yesterday. The competition was held on the basketball courts near Muscle Beach and drew a decent crowd. There were competitors from all weight classes, with the largest wrestler, Kelly Gneiting, top photo on the right, weighing it at about 440 lbs., if I recall correctly. The current champion, Dan Kalbfleisch, is pictured top center and above dropping Gneiting to the mat. He keeps a blog about sumo called Sumo Dan, if you’re interested in learning more. More photos after the jump!

Venice Graffiti Wall

Here’s another from the hood. Trying to work up the nerve to flip off of it, Curt “CP” Parks runs along the Venice Graffiti Wall in Venice Beach, Calif., while shooting some photos with other members of his hip-hop group, RME. Also known as the Venice Public Art Walls, they are managed by Venice art group In Creative Unity and individuals are allowed to paint on them on weekends after applying for a permit.

I’ve been doing a bit of shooting through an old WWI-era Hasselblad that I have. The camera was a gift from my Uncle Mike several years ago. It’s a beautiful old black box with shiny silver hardware, but the shutter has never worked and I’d be surprised if it’s fixable. Still, I’ve enjoyed having it out on a bookshelf over the years. On a whim during a recent photo shoot with the band Lovers Electric I decided to shoot through the viewfinder. This was something I’d experimented with before using a couple of other old cameras I have, but never with this one for some reason. I liked the results with the band shoot (scroll down and you can find that post from month or two ago), so I’ve since been playing around with it a bit more. While making Erinn sit for some test portraits for an upcoming band shoot I discovered that I could take out the plate of glass with the cross-hairs and get a much clearer picture. So I decided to take it out on the boardwalk to see what I could come up with.

I normally don’t go for gimmicks, but I’m enjoying it for now. And it’s nice to put the older camera back to work. It’s got such a great lens on it, it’s a shame to have it sitting idle on a bookshelf. I especially like using it out along the boardwalk. Venice has been photographed so much that it will be nice to come up with something a little different. I also threw in a shot of some lovely sunflowers we have sitting in our living room. Enjoy!