Spotlit wrestling

"Reservoir's Taylor Sims wraps up River Hill senior Scott Trench during the 171-weight bout in which Trench won in 1:46 at Reservoir High School, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. River Hill topped Reservoir 33-30."

Sometimes you get what you wish for even if you don't actually wish upon a star.

I was chatting with some friends about my first installment of shooting wrestling when I said in jest that I really wanted to shoot a prep wrestling match where they turn off all the lights and use one of those giant center overhead spotlights.

While I wasn't fully joking the light, it was something that had been on my mind. And then, well, I got my chance to abuse that light Thursday night during my second time shooting wrestling.

After not being fully content with my first attempt at the sport I needed to fill that negative void I had stirring in my mind. I had to top my last take.

But what got me wanting to shoot the overhead spotlit match was a combination of three things.

First was an image of friend and fellow Baltimore photog Chris Assaf. He captured a killer moment where wrestler had sat in the center of the ring dejected with great light during one of these lit matches. It was perfect telling moment and had beautiful light. So I'd be lying if I said that image wasn't correlating with a big spotlight and wrestling.

Second was the horrible lighting and backgrounds at the last match I shot. I love taking advantage of a clean, solid background when I can. A spot light would do just that.

The third would be when another local shooter reminded me during the first match I shot that these types of dramatically lit events still take place, more conveniently for me at John Carroll High School, which is about 20 minutes away from my place.

I had thought about just going up there to shoot for the heck of it, to clear my mind. Little did I know, I wouldn't need to go out of my way to find a match like it.

After grabbing dinner with some friends, photogs, my buddy Matt Roth was actually heading to shoot wrestling for the night. Since I could have either gone home and did nothing or shot for myself with no tight deadline, I opted to tag along.

Before we went I asked him if the light was any good. I wasn't going to fight horrible light for nothing. But to our surprise, the match was exactly what I wanted. A huge overhead lamp. I was pumped.

I took advantage of it and had a blast. I made some images I am happy with and some I didn't. At the end of the night I felt a sense of accomplishment as I topped my first go at the sport.

This match up between two high ranked prep school was perfect, too. There was a lot of emotion...and blood.

I am still wondering why it's not covered as heavily as basketball. Here are some of my favorites.