Trainer Ray Rivera of the Newburgh Boxing Club tapes the hands of fighter Felix Davila prior to his 165lb. bout during the Junior Olympics Metro Championship Boxing Finals at the Newburgh Armory in Newburgh, NY on Sunday, May 15, 2011. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Fighter Randy Hinkson (21) of Plattekill wraps his hands at the Newburgh Boxing Club in Newburgh, NY on Friday, May 13, 2011. Ray Rivera, the club's owner / trainer may have to close the gym in June due to financial hardships. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Spent a few hours this afternoon at the Newburgh Boxing Club here in town. This for an upcoming story on the boxing club that may have to close, due to financial problems and haggling with the city. 
I've grown to the know the owner / head trainer Ray Rivera, as I've had a few assignments there the past few years. I've also covered fights where his fighters have been on the card. It's really good to see some of his fighters now appearing at bigger venues, which in turn means bigger purses for these inner city athletes.
Fighter Gary Acosta (15) of Newburgh hits the heavy bag at the Newburgh Boxing Club in Newburgh, NY on Friday, May 13, 2011. Ray Rivera, the club's owner / trainer may have to close the gym in June due to financial hardships. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Youngsters kept cool in the spray of a sprinkler at Audrey Carey Park on Liberty Street in the City of Newburgh, NY on Friday, July 9, 2010. The Northeast U.S. has endured a heatwave for a week, with temperatures reaching past 100ºF. © www.chetgordon.com/blog
Valdrin Muriqi (right) of Newburgh, NY follows through on a punch to the head of Emmanuel Brujan (left) of Brooklyn, NY during their Middleweight fight at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY on Saturday, July 10, 2010. Muriqi defated Brujan in a decision. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Kim Gore cries in Judge Robert Freehill's courtroom at the Orange County Courthouse in Goshen, NY on Friday, July 16, 2010. Gore is the Cuddebackville woman who was convicted in March on aggravated vehicular homicide and second-degree manslaughter resulting from the crash which killed her 3-year-old daughter Sierra Gore in June 2009. She was sentenced by Judge Freehill to 8 1/3 to 25 years on the aggravated vehicular homicide conviction and 5 to 15 years on the manslaughter conviction, to be served concurrently. Gore was high on cocaine at the time of the crash. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
night of boxing following up on the earlier post of portraits of our local fighters, a court sentencing where 40-year old mother was sent to prison for killing her daughter in a cocaine induced motor vehicle accident last summer, a few hot weather, portrait and other features. You know it's hot out when a little league coach hands out ice-chilled washcloths for his players during an early evening playoff game (above).
Poughkeepsie, NY. One of yesterday's assignments called for coverage of a few local boxers training for a night of boxing next weekend. This was sort a media event in one of their training facilities, at a local college across the river. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a boxing ring in this converted dance studio, (complete with a mirrored wall), so I had to immediately make do with what props and the location at hand. These fighters do train in a nearby boxing club here in my hometown, and I'm hoping to do a secondary shoot with a few of the fighters, including the local name fighter Luis DelValle (left). DelValle is a former NY and national Golden Gloves champion, now 9 - 0 (7 KO's as a pro), and I'd photographed him back in March during a full boxing card where he KO'd his opponent in the first minute of that fight. An amazingly fast featherweight, articulate, and just as important for me - he completely understood how to "look like a fighter", even sparring hard 
(at right) for a few minutes to get sweaty for the portraits, and was very patient with me in making the few portraits I needed. (My portable one-strobe & umbrella set-up is below). It was good to speak to him on a personal level for a few moments to learn about his background, growing up in Puerto Rico, training schedule, and for him to realize that I was genuinely showing an interest in him as a young athlete. I remember he kept telling me during the few poses we tried, "You're the boss..." To hear that from a young 23 year-old athlete, who's fought all over the world and just as easily could've been a prima dona, made it all pretty easy for me, considering I was perspiring quite a bit too in the stuffy second floor training room. I am looking forward to spending more time with him and other fighters out of the
Newburgh Boxing Club nearby, and drawing the assignment next weekend. The sportswriter and I are already banging ideas around about possibly gaining access to the dressing rooms before their fights. 
Now that'd certainly make a heckuva audio slideshow. Stay tuned. ~cg.
*More on different
This mindset is a year-round exercise of preparation, creativity and logistics. It's usually the cause in itself for many sleepless nights, gnashing of teeth, and what has become a continual, yet albeit need for packing enough lighting gear, extra cameras, and supporting hardware like clamps, umbrellas, stands, radio transmitters, and extension cords to cover a championship game. Sometimes it's just a 15-minute portrait made in the school's gym; catering to the subject's schedule, as the top image illustrates earlier today. It's good when the pre-visualizing of the finished image in my mind's eye actually has a good chance of materializing. It's always a good feeling of relief when an athlete is pleased with the image(s) on the back of the camera. When all those elements come together in what can sometimes be a hurried session due to factors outside of my control, you can almost hear my heels clicking...
Kingston guard Rachel Coffey is the Times Herald-Record's 2010 Girls High School Player of the Year. She's seen photographed at the Rondout Neighborhood Center in Kingston, NY on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. Coffey will attend Syracuse University next Fall. Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON
(Sports Photography con't.): "Fight Night in Poughkeepsie..." Last Saturday the challenge in assignments were (#1.) Army's Annual Spring Scrimmage Game and later that same evening, a full boxing card of 8 bouts in Poughkeepsie, NY in the horribly dark Mid-Hudson Civic Center. This image of the fighter's face being soaked by his trainer 
just works for me. It's not a moment you normally see in print from a boxing event and I remember intentionally jumping up on the ring to be outside of the ropes for what was probably no more than 30 seconds intervals between rounds, pushing myself to make a few feature-type images of what it's like in a fighter's corner.
Boxer Daniel Sostre of Highland, NY is treated by his trainer Tracey Patterson between rounds of his NY State Welterweight Championship fight against Jay Krupp of Catskill, NY at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY on Saturday, March 27, 2010. Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON
