Kendrix has had a love for cameras, both photo, and video, since a young child. After spending time in Atlanta as a personal photographer, he moved to Thailand in 2012. That’s when he focused on travel photography and started Freedom of Photography to share some of the photos and stories from his travels. He mainly photographs landscapes but he also works with non-profits and NGOs to photograph their work and provide them with digital content.
In this episode, Kendrix shares the story and inspiration behind a Muay Thai fight photo and the new techniques and tools he used to make it.
- Find Kendrix at freedomofphotography.com
- See the photo from this episode here.
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Kendrix Thomas: My name is Kendrix Thomas, and this is the photo breakdown
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: photo breakdown. There’s a podcast where I talk with the photographer, sharing the story of a specific photograph technique or business when I’m your host, Scott Wyden Kivowitz and this is the photo breakdown. Let’s break it down. Hello, my name is Scott Wyden.
Kivowitz your host of photo breakdown. And today I’m sitting down with Kendricks Thomas to talk about. A really cool photo that I’m especially excited to talk about because, well, one for those who know me who have listened to me for awhile who are following my YouTube channel, whatever, you know, that I do karate specifically go Jeru.
And the photo that we’re gonna be talking about today and, and digging into is actually a, we tie photo. And in Thailand. And so this is gonna be a, it’s gonna be a fun one. So hi Kendricks, how you doing? Hi, Scott.
Kendrix Thomas: How are you?
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I’m doing well doing well. Yes, I’ve been I’ve been doing some editing this morning.
I did a surprise for proposal session last night. So, lots of photos to go through. So I, so what I’ve been doing this morning, lots of editing. Nice. Yeah. So I’ve got two questions for. The first question who has been the biggest influence on your
Kendrix Thomas: biggest influence on my life? A photographer from a photography standpoint, I would have to say my mother, she put a camera video and photo camera in my hands as a very young child, young age.
I’ve always been fascinated by photo. Video cameras. So, she was the one put me first in the game of photography back in the old film days. So she definitely had a big influence on my photography life and my life over.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. Awesome. That’s a good, that’s a good answer. All right. So my second question, if you could only photograph one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Kendrix Thomas: One thing what have to say a genre overall would be landscapes. Any type of landscape, photo outdoor for. Whether it’d be the beach or the mountains or anything in between. I would be just happy doing that until I, until I’m in the grave. That brings me extreme joy, and I can never get enough of it.
Yeah,
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I’m right there with you. Like if, if I could never photograph another person for the rest of my life. Right. And, and didn’t have to worry about taking care of my family or anything like that, I would a hundred percent just. Get into the Zen zone and photograph
Kendrix Thomas: landscapes. Right? I love
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: it. Before we dive in this episode is sponsored by my lead generation course for photographers called more leads more clients.
Yes. If you would like to increase the leads you’re generating on your photography site, you can use the strategies I teach in my course, access it at Scott widen.com/leads. Awesome. Let’s break down the photo.
This photo, first of all, you are originally from Atlanta, Georgia here in the United States. This photo is in Thailand. Where, from what I understand, you move to
Kendrix Thomas: Thailand, right? Actually I’m from Memphis. I’m originally from the Mississippi Memphis area. Yeah. That’s where I was born and raised and grew up around.
Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee area. I moved to Atlanta and did some personal photography, therefore awhile. And then I moved to Thailand in 2012. And that’s where I took off with freedom of photography and got the, getting into the photograph of Muay Thai fights. Yeah.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, so how did you wind up, how did you wind up in Thailand?
Like of all places? How did you wind up there and how do you get to this? To begin with
Kendrix Thomas: well photography. Isn’t my full-time job. It’s a very serious passion of mine, but my full-time job is I, I build wind farms. I’m a wind farm construction manager and accepted a job in Thailand to build Thailand’s first wind farm.
It’s the first wind farm in Thailand and the biggest in all of Southeast Asia. And I was part of their project. Which brought me to rule super rural Thailand, about four hours north of Bangkok to a small, small village called white bonk. And that is where I was helping build a wind farm. And on my time off and days off of course I was in the photography already.
I would go to the national parks and try to find things to photograph. And one day, one of the. Office admin girls was telling me about the Molly top fights that I should go to. And I went to wine and I was completely hooked. This one particular on this photo was in a small town, maybe 30 minutes from the town I lived in called Dan component and it was at the temple.
And it it’s, that’s how I ended up getting to there. One of the girls at work told me about. And it was one of the best photo experiences that I had in Thailand.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, so about what year would you say this? This one was,
Kendrix Thomas: this photo was probably 2013 or 14. Probably 2013 may be a year, a year or two after I moved to Thailand.
It’s
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so interesting because one. So in the United States, traditional martial arts, which is what I study. There’s no boxing ring. I mean, we tie is all about in the boxing ring. They’re, they’re, they’re heavy on, on kicking the legs, you know, they’re all about strengthening and conditioning, their bones to to take the brute force.
Right. So it’s interesting that one. The of the girl who lost is she knocked out like she’s she’s on the ground.
Kendrix Thomas: She’s yeah, no, she’s cold. Yeah. It’s a wrap it’s done for her.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. All right. So, obviously the girl who won is very excited.
Kendrix Thomas: She’s
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: a static. Yeah. And what’s so interesting is just, just from knowing them, we tie style. No, I’ve never trained it myself, but just from, you know, watching videos of in studying it a little bit, she’s not wearing both of them. They’re not wearing any shin pads and they go heavy at the shins. I can’t imagine how much pain they both must’ve been going through.
Kendrix Thomas: No, there’s no protection. There’s no protection at Oxford for the gloves. And sometimes they wear a mouth guard. Sometimes they don’t, but that’s from the eight year old kids all the way up to the adults. There is no, there is no protection or anything. And this girl, I have the photos leading up to. I should probably send you those too.
So you can kind of see the combination leading up to her getting knocked out. But I think she got a sad kick to the throat or the upper chest area, which took her out and on the progression of the frames, the progression of the frames, you can see the girl that won, raise her leg up, then the next frame kick her in the throat.
Then the next frame she has her hands up and the other girl is sleep on the ground.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. I mean, so, so the photo that we’re, that we’re going to, that we’re talking about, we’re going to be linking to in the show notes for everybody can go and check it out, but please be sure to browse the entire gallery.
Cause there’s a lot of photos from, from this fight night, I guess, from, from this one day, or is this multiple days in this, in this.
Kendrix Thomas: This four gallery here is from it’s from a couple of nights at the beginning of the gallery, you can see that it’s more like a rugged training gym, just in a jungle where we have where the guy, where the guys are just kind of working.
And then after that you see those same guys in the training. I mean, in the actual fight, that’s from one night and Pak Chong, and then the third it’s, you can see the feel of the photos. They all kind of have a field, the group that gov they have a field. And the third one on the bottom where the girl got knocked out, that, that we’re talking about now that’s on another.
So the gallery shows three different scenes, one in the training session and two actual fights on two different nights.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. So, so can you talk to me about what you had, it looks like maybe you had a flash with you potentially, like, could you talk about what equipment you were using to, to photograph this, this one specific.
Kendrix Thomas: So this one specific photo. I did have a flash on me at the beginning of the early in the fights. I did not have to use the flash cause I believe it was more in the day-to-day. So, it, it was still light in, in the, in the same where I didn’t have to use the flash, but as the night, as the night progressed on, I had to turn the flash on so I can get better shots, but that’s also a fine balance.
Act that you have to do too, because you don’t want to flash a blend of fighters. So when I first, when I first started, I was, I blended a couple of fighters and not saw the people. I didn’t know what they were saying. I couldn’t speak to at the time I can now, but at the time I didn’t know what they were saying.
And they was like, Hey, stop blinding the fighters. So like, okay, sorry. So I, it was, it was a very bright flash. So I had the light. Work on my time. And with soda, I wouldn’t blind the fighters that bad. Yeah. So on that particular shot, I had six 24 to 1 0 4. I was using a five D mark three and I had a 24 to 1 0 5 F four with the think it was a 400 the 400 X Excel flash.
I forget the, the, it was like the Canon flash, but I did have an external, I did have the external flash on and the body was a five D mark three. It was a 24 to 1 0 5 F four.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That’s a great combination of camera and lens to obviously with, with when it gets dark out. Yeah. Now four is going to be a little trickier, but, but but at the same time, that, that camera’s pretty good ISO, so you can do
Kendrix Thomas: right.
It’s, it’s very good. But as it’s low light and there’s a lot of fast action going on, it really the flash helps capture some of the action cause you have. Pick your poison. Do you want to have low light, but blurry photos or you want to, you got to kind of find a, have to find a fine line. And I think I found it with, with that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And, you know, using the flash after she’s already one and just not have to worry about getting punched in the face anymore. Right at that point, at that point, it’s all good. And it looks like and I could, I could be mistaken, but actually it looks like she won in the third round or something.
Cause the there’s a 1, 2, 3, 4 sign in the back corner. That’s actually illuminated a three. So I’m assuming it was a third round.
Kendrix Thomas: Yes, it was, it was the third round knockout of each round lasted. I think for the girls, the, her, her class, I think there was like the older teen girls. The fights go for the rounds go for maybe 90 seconds, less than two minutes, I believe.
And this was the third round. And from my remembrance, she was, it was pretty much back and forth. She kind of had the upper hand for the most part, but it was a pretty easy. Mashed fight. And then she just timed it perfect kick to the, to the chest throat area. And it was, it was night-night after that.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes your opponent having really good timing is. This is a way to, to take a pretty big hit.
Kendrix Thomas: Yes, it was. And it’s something to see the girls go in. They go just as hard as the guys and the little kids. It’s no just cutesy dainty girls out there just slapping each other around.
No, they were going full on knees to the face and elbows to the chin. And it was pretty intense to see
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: we tie as is a pretty scary sport because, because. Because of the fact that how hard they trained to condition their bodies, they’re literally there, their arms and their legs conditioned to and their elbows, even though they do elbow strikes a lot to to, to take brute force without pads.
If that’s not somebody you want to get into a fight with, even off, you know, out of the rink on the street, like, that’s, you, you would never know if they’re, if they’re in, we tie fighter and. They can take it.
Kendrix Thomas: Definitely. I mean, the condition is, is unreal. A lot of these fighters train from the time that their kids.
So, I mean, like if you look at that gallery at the training gym, I’m off to the side. You got little kids to start kicking trees. And a lot of them there, they just kick trees all day since they were like, since they’re like eight years old. So the time you get to like 16 and you’re fighting your whole Shan leg is just a piece of steel.
Like they just, they just kick trees all day and it’s, it’s the condition. It’s, it’s a very respectful, you don’t see a lot of boasting. She’s obviously excited on this photo, but it’s not a very bravado or braggadocious sport. They’re very they’re all, it’s a Buddhist culture and society, so they’re very respectful and honorable in win and defeat.
But the conditioning is, I may just a guy on the side of the. Seven coconut water could be a championship top. You never know. Yeah. You don’t want to find out
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: either. Yeah. You know, and, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it, I mean, just, just knowing the martial arts, brotherhood or sisterhood that comes in play, it wouldn’t surprise me.
If the girl who won. Helped the, when the girl who came, you know, who got knocked out, came to, if the girl who won, helped her up and gave her a hug or a fist bump or whatever, that’s what would happen in, you know, typically here anyway. So, wouldn’t surprise me, but see, I, I can’t help, but to get a little off topic from the photo itself because of the subject matter, but that’s why I picked this photo.
I love, I love, I love the photo. I love the subject matter. I think the colors for this photo are just quite beautiful. They really pop out like her red, her red shirt, the blue shorts matching the blue gloves. It all just really pops end. You even got the texture and detail in the really filthy mat on the, in the rink.
Right. So you got that. And then
Kendrix Thomas: man, it’s it’s, it’s, it’s not, if you’re a germaphobe that’s that’s somewhere you want to be. I can tell you. It’s rural Thailand. It’s hot. It’s probably nighttime. It’s probably cooled down to a nice, cool 90, 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Uh it’s it’s it’s in the middle of a jungle.
It’s very hard. It’s very steamy. There’s smokey cigarettes, loud music. The people are planned is very happy. Pitched to me, it sounds like a squealed screeching music on this same link on the same gallery at the top. You can see the videos, the video of the kids, but it’s that same night and you can watch the video clip.
Field of what the environment was light with the noise and the yelling. And it’s, it’s very intense, but the colors here, I didn’t do a lot of editing on that desk, those actual how the, how intense the colors were on there. So it just, it’s just how everything looks on the photo. That’s real, real code.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. I think that’s that’s that says a lot for one, just getting the correct exposure. You know, using the flash they’re worked well. And then also, you know, the Canon body that you were using has beautiful color as well, which helped to set us, you know, at the same time. So I think it’s a good deal of everything.
So thank you so much for breaking down this photo with me. One more question or two more questions. What should I have asked?
Kendrix Thomas: What should you have asked me? But didn’t, I’m not sure the, the, I think, I think you think we covered the photo, the photo pretty good. We covered out the details. Again, I think it would bring some context to this photo.
If I don’t know if you have a nod, but if the people, if they click on it in the show notes, they can scroll up and see the video of, of the fight, not this particular fight on the photo, but the fights from that night, you can get a field of, of, of the environment. And I think that brings another element.
If you can hear the noise and every time there’s a punch or a kick, the crowd reacts and it’s smokey and loudest, it’s kind of like those stereotypical. Southeast Asian hot, sweaty jungle fights, you see kind of in the movies a little bit, there’s a little truth to that, but if you just look at that video clip, I think you can get a feel of environment and that’ll put this photo of the, we’re talking about the context a little bit.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay. Yeah, everybody should definitely you know, I’m gonna be looking directly to the photo, but you can always browse through the rest of this, this page has gallery the videos You know, Kendrick’s full site. So speaking of which, where can our listeners connect with you online?
Kendrix Thomas: They can connect, of course, on my website, freedom of photography.com.
Have all of my links there. They can interact with me on there, leave comments or reach me by email, or if they want to reach out to me directly on social. I don’t do Twitter too much, but I’m on Instagram and I am Kendra. I am K E N D R O or on Facebook and my name Kendrix Thomas. And they can see all of my photos and interact with me and kind of see what I do.
And throughout my travels, I’ve been to 40 plus countries. So I have a wide of portfolio photos that they can interact with me and connect with me.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. Thank you for listening to the photo breakdown for the show notes and to see the photo share today. Visit photobreakdown.com.
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