Round 3 with the Executioner

Had the opportunity to once again to a photo shoot with living boxing legend, Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins. This was the third time around with Hopkins and Ring Magazine, and he never fails to entertain. The shoot is for a monthly piece that appears in the magazine called "Perfect Execution".

Each month Hopkins show the correct and sometimes incorrect ways of performing in the ring. It's more than just a photo shoot when you are with Bernard as he'll have you moving around the ring, throwing punches and teaching you angles. Sometimes you'll even take a few from the champ (unfortunately I can attest to that last part)...

Shoot started in a bit of trouble as I hit a bunch of traffic and arrived 15 minutes after our planned 11am start time, fortunately for me, everyone else was running behind me so I still had time to set up lights and tape down all the wires (have to in a gym setting, as people are still going about their business working out). Once Bernard arrived, we were told he had a 3:30pm flight to LA, so our day would be cut short and we would have to hustle. Here's a quick one snapped of me testing some lights...



Once we got set we moved quickly from one thing to another including body punching, the correct way...



and the incorrect way...



Next up was feinting, which was tough to demonstrate in stills, but we ended up trying a 3 photo sequence, which works, but still wasn't the optimal take...These are two of the images, the first (not shown) is a normal fighter stance, the second shows the left hand dropped as if a punch was going to be thrown and the fighter on the left pulling back, the third is the right hand that follows. Would have been nice to use more frames, but ultimately you are limited by print space.




Did have some fun with the feinting part as Bernard had me stand in as he feinted, then accidentally dropped a right hand in on me. In fairness I was holding my camera in my left, although I'm fairly certain it would have landed anyway. He then threw some body shots until I finally fired back with a right to the body. I can now say I've landed a punch on a boxing champ! Wished I had pics of that...

Went through some other things before he had to take off, such as cutting off the ring, which was another challenge to shoot, and we went with some footwork closeups, as well as some wider shots.



and some basic pad work shots...




On a side assignment, they also asked me to do a quick shoot of Hopkins' trainer Nazeem Richardson. I had never had the chance to meet him before, but he is a really nice guy, polite and very easy to work with. The idea was to get a very quick portrait type shot that would run one page, and then several images of Nazeem speaking to go along with the interview. These are always the tougher shots as most people I've done end up looking uncomfortable knowing their being photographed. Took a bunch, here are a few I think will work for the piece.