Since I'm the big photo guy (wonder where he gets that from...), a buddy asked me to take pics of a local MMA show he was sponsoring.
I said sure ... although I'd never shot indoor events. I knew my camera wouldn't do the trick (Sony DSC-R1) so I rented an 30D and a couple lenses.

So there I was ... in a dark arena with light effects and smoke, and a camera I've essentially never shot with (friends have Canons ... that's about it). Keep in mind I usually shoot cars and outdoors!

It's incredibly different from shooting cars as you have no setup time, things happen once and quickly ... there's no "oh I'll take a picture from here, then one from here, oh, and from here too".
A challenge, but I definitely had a lot of fun and am looking forward to shooting events like these again!

Here are some of the shots ... criticisms welcome!

 

ok, just a few more ...









And if you think I had access to a crazy top level room to shoot from high above ... errr ... make that a wobbly 8" wide crappy scaffolding. No one else was up there ... hehe.

 

Photos from above are badass.

What lenses did you rent? I'm impressed.

I'd love to shoot an event like this!

 

That scaffolding was scary as hell. Nothing more than the planks of wood you see ... and right before I went on the guy tells me "watch out, the side tubing isn't really solid". Moving the camera with the big 70-200 on it was enough to make the whole damn thing sway ...

Lenses were the ubiquitous 70-200 f2.8L IS, a 15mm fisheye f2.8, and 24mm f1.4 L

The sharpness of the 24mm even at f1.4 is absolutely ridiculous. L glass FTW.
70-200 is the pwnster, but heavy as hell.

Kinda wish I had more fisheye effect, but the 10-22mm only comes in f3.5-4.5 ... I don't know how good that would be in such low light.

Really recomend shooting events like that. It's a lot of fun.