Nicole Randall of RAW Photography is familiar to most people involved in the New Zealand fight circuit. Her photography skills and intimate knowledge of the fight game result in some consistently beautiful fight photographs.

Nicole is often employed by fight promoters to attend their events and conduct the official fight photography. Her company: RAW Photography, has an archive of amazing pictures from events stretching years into the past.

RAW Photography has covered King in the Ring, as well as many other fight shows on the regional circuit. Fight News’ Harry Greenfield caught up with Nicole to ask her a few questions.

Hi Nicole. Have you always been a fight fan?

“Yes! I grew up watching boxing and wrestling with my dad back in the day. Moved over to the UFC about 12 years ago. I don’t think there has been a UFC event that I have missed. When I started doing photography, it was a natural progression. Absolutely nothing beats being ringside on any night.”

You consistently produce outstanding fight pictures. What is your secret?

“Thanks Harry. Josh Hedges is the UFC photographer who gets to perch ringside. He had a great blog at one stage on his website and I learned from that; learned to follow a fighter in the ring or cage. Once you start understanding the game, anticipating the shot gets you the pic. I quickly learned that just shooting in quick succession when the fighters get close to each other does not work, haha.”

Tell us about the start of your journey into fight photography.

“I started with a fighter profile with Shaun (Colmore) and Jack (Ferguson) for an MMA assignment. Karl allowed me to spend a month at Strikeforce taking pics of their training sessions and this helped me enormously. Tim had a kickboxing/MMA event a month down the track, Shaun managed to get me a photography pass and my journey was born.

We still think back to that first weigh-in at Tim’s gym . . . it was the most tense night I have ever experienced between fight camps; the air was electric and not one pic was taken. But the fight night was truly incredible and was one of the best I have been to.

Fight sports are sensory overload. If I can come away with a set of fight pics that capture the skill, action and emotion of the fight; the intention in the face of the fighter landing the shot and the reaction of the fighter receiving it then it’s a good night for me. So much blood, sweat and tears go into the training, I like to be able to produce a set of pics for the fighters that reflect their efforts.”

Have you ever done any fight training yourself?

“Kickboxing with Nigel, Anna and Richard at Proactive Martial Arts. Great gym, great facilities and team.”

What originally brought you to New Zealand?

“We realised that there was no future in South Africa, sadly. New Zealand outdoors totally suited our (family’s) lifestyle and we have loved every moment of it.”

Thanks for the interview, Nicole.

To check out more of Nicole's work, head to RAW Photography's Facebook page or Instagram page: rawphotography.Mx_

If you need some professional fighter profile pics or a photographer to cover your fight show, give Nicole an email at rawphotography.mx@gmail.com.