I was hired by the promoter to do the Tyson- Stewart poster for their then upcoming fight in Atlantic City. Everything was set up and we were ready to go as soon as Mike finished shooting a TV promo. But Tyson and his entourage left the room forgetting all about our shoot.
As they left, I glanced at the Public Relations Manager only to see disaster in his eyes. I instantly took off down the hall after Mike. When I reached him I grabbed him by the arm and said, "Mike we need to shoot the picture for the fight poster". He followed me back to the room for the picture. I showed both fighters what I needed them to do and quickly walked back to my Nikon, focused, made three quick frames, and asked Tyson to look a little meaner. With that, he walked out the door.
After processing the film, I noticed that the third frame was the better frame. In that frame the light from the strobe on Tyson's side had not fully recycled, but fired anyway which enhanced that shot over the first two frames. Had that one strobe waited for full recycle, I would not have had a usable third frame.
I was assigned by Sports Illustrated to make a triple exposure of the men's 60 meter dash at the Chemical Bank Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden.
There were four Dyna-Lite 1000 w/s units (two at each end) and two Comet PMT1200 w/s battery operated strobes in the middle of the track. Since no live wires were allowed on the arena floor, we adapted two Dyna-Lite 4080 bi-tube heads to work off the PMT1200. This also reduced the flash duration,which is paramount for this type of shoot.
All six strobes were connected in pairs to a switching unit controlled by an assistant who would flip switches on and off as needed during the very short 6.5 seconds of this event. The floor was being used for other events, which prevented testing our system on this "one" shot assignment.
Now with all the equipment in place, a TV technician appeared and announced that a strobe was blocking their camera view. Quickly, I told my assistant to lower the strobe head and return ASAP. He ran to the strobe, made the adjustment, and returned to the control box seconds before the pistol shot.
Aside from many stressful obstacles,my Dyna-Lites and Comet PMT's performed perfectly...Thanks Dyna-Lite!!
I've been depending on Dyna-Lite's since 1970 when I purchased my first Dyna-Lite bare tube conversion of a Honeywell Stobonar Pressmaster 800. I still have the unit today, and could use it if necessary. Since those early days as a newspaper photographer, I've acquired a much larger pool of Dyna-Lite equipment that is called on time and time again. Two of my 800 watt second units (D804) from the mid-seventies are still being used. Other than being great strobes, I like the fact that they are very portable and that's been a major factor since I never know where I may need to take them at a moments notice.
