Great photos, Rick. Just to add to the previous comments: really interesting composition and good use of selective focusing (Kissey), shadow (Mr. Kelly) and foreground elements (Tag Team Match) to highlight the subject in each image. I need to let go of my preconceived notions of composition and experiment more! Thanks for sharing these.
Thanks for the comments, Ed. Many, many years ago I had a mentor who taught me two very important things. Early on, I would bring him prints of weird stuff that I was shooting and he would say, "Rick, someone has to shoot this s**t." And then he told me one day, "You are on the right track. When you finally learn the fundamentals of photography, when the technical side becomes second nature to you, then that is the time to throw all that out the window and start the process of learning
how to see."
What he was telling me was that once the technical elements are burned into your brain where you don't even think about them while you are shooting- exposure, framing, composition, etc- then the
creative side kicks in and that is when the fun starts.
I have been trying to follow those guidelines ever since. Most of the time, I fail at my objective. But every now and then, I get it right.
By the way, he also fired me as a sports photographer. He called me the worst sports photographer he had ever seen, and he was right
I never came back with good action shots. I was always much more interested in side details, what was going on around me, and so on. I found shooting standard sports action scenes dreadfully boring. Also, I simply was not good enough to be a great sports photographer. I envy those guys and gals. It takes real talent, stamina, and perseverance to shoot that stuff. My hat goes off to them.