"Cameron, do you like robots?"

About a week ago, I learned that a high school kid in my neighborhood was going to be in a robotics competition this past weekend.  On Friday, my branch manager received an email about the very competition from a family member.  He asked me, "Cameron, are you interested in robots/robotics?"  He told me about the email he'd received on the competition.  He also told me it was free to attend.  I'm hooked.

As Leila usually works all day Saturday, I was free to go and see what it was all about.  I took my camera, of course, and came out with some evidences of its nerdiness.  It was super intriguing and entertaining, for sure, but I was certainly in the midst of a different crowd that afternoon.

ACW ... a pleasant surprise

At the turn of the new year, I was contacted somewhat out of the blue from one of my good old high school friends.  She was getting in touch with me to ask about signing me up to work with herself and her husband.  They manage ACW Utah - American Championship Wrestling.  They were getting ready to come back from a two year hiatus with the promotion, and were looking to expand and improve.

I remember watching professional wrestling at a very young age with my dad when Hulk Hogan was in his prime.  He had opponents such as "The Macho Man" Randy Savage, Jake the Snake, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, The Undertaker, The Mountie, The Big Bossman, and the like.  Those were some classic wrestling days ...  I also more recently was a fairly regular viewer of WWF Smackdown when it aired on KJZZ every Thursday night.  I loved the Rock, and his "$500 silk shirt" coupled with the peoples' eyebrow and elbow ... "Can you smell ... what the Rock ... is cookin'?"

Working for a local professional wrestling promotion was never something I had expected myself to do in my photography career.  I have to say it was sure a surprise to consider the opportunity.  I loved the prospect, though, and I have thus far been able to expand my repertoire into work that is proving quite dynamic and interesting.  Here are a few of the promo pics I've pieced together for them:

The work for ACW has proved thus far to be really fun, and they're only just now getting started up again.  It's really liberating to be given the chance to show them what I can do - I'm the one who makes most of the design decisions - they've hired me to simply produce a great final product.  I love that!  Here are some shots from the show itself:

It's a blast.  I love that Leila gets to come along and shoot with me, too.  I don't think she's had even anywhere near the meager history of mine in watching pro wrestling, but it's pretty hard not to enjoy LIVE.

I have also done the web design for ACW.  It was a pretty impromptu proposal, but I knew I could do it.  Wow, what a difference!  I'm glad they're so happy with the product.  It's neat to be involved in something that will help my photography and design prowess gain more exposure.  Even greater to see the matches from so close-up. ;)  Visit the site at www.acwwrestlingonline.com.