A Tough Pair

Photo of the Day

On Saturday I photographed my final roller derby bout of the season. This was a great year from start to finish. I learned a lot making photographs of these lovely ladies. During the course of the season I started trying to branch out from just taking the action photos on the track. Sometimes it was my eye that would catch something, and other times it would be an idea from one of the skaters. This photo started as just a side by side portrait. It then morphed into this photo that might be my favorite from the bout. A derby photographer does not get paid, but you can’t put a price on what I have learned this season. I feel that getting in deep with a team really opens up the ideas, and I was much happier with my final bout pictures than I was the first bout pictures. You can see the rest of my pictures from the last bout here on my Facebook page. Two years ago I had no idea that this even existed. Now I can’t believe that I wasn’t watching it sooner.

Technical Data

I really wanted a rough look for this photo. I tried a couple of rough looks, but I liked the idea of a high contrast black and white photo the best. I started off with Matt Kloskowski’s HDR black and white preset. I then tweaked it a bit so that I could have the look that I wanted. I thought that these women should look like the rock stars that they are.