As stated in Tate’s blog, the trails and tribulations of shooting in Thailand haven’t been easy; in fact, it’s been a downright nightmare. And while equipment failure, location, and adapting to ever changing light conditions has been difficult, none of that compares to my struggle to find the perfect talent.

Before I arrived in Thailand to begin the photo shoot for victory belt’s upcoming Muay Thai instructional book, I devised a game plan that would allow me to shoot carefully selected fighters from some of the most popular gyms in Thailand. This would not allow me to incorporate a variety of techniques, but also illustrate the different fighting styles that are common throughout Thailand. However, as I traveled to different gyms to profile potential fighters, I realized that shooting in such a chaotic fashion would make it difficult to create a system of techniques.

To avoid confusion, I decided to choose a couple of fighters that have a similar fighting style, shoot the entire book using only those athletes, and then go back through the book once it’s finished to fill in the blanks with a fighter that has the polar opposite fighting style. This would allow me to create a book that is not only well organized and easy to understand, but also illustrate the different ways in which you can execute a specific technique.

Four weeks and 25 gyms later, I hadn’t taken a single photo for the book. Although I had encountered several worthy fighters, none of them had the qualities that I was looking for. In order make the best book possible, I had to find someone that was willing to work long hours as well as provide me with a few hundred techniques.

In a desperate attempt to find a legitimate candidate, I contacted Tate Zanstra, a professional photographer and author that had traveled Thailand documenting Thai boxing for his upcoming victory belt book. He was already in Thailand shooting a Muay Thai instructional DVD, so I shot him an e-mail explaining my dilemma. He suggested that I contact two brothers by the name of Pet-ak and Pet-o Sitjopor, two champion fighters that are currently living in Hua Hin, a small beach city south of Bangkok.

After a short phone conversation with Pet-ak, called ‘O’ by his friends, I traveled south from Chiang Mai, met up with Tate in Bangkok, and then shot down to Hua Hin to meet the twins. It didn’t take me long to realize that these guys would be perfect for the book. Not only were they accomplished champions, but they had excellent technique and were willing to work hard to make this the best book possible. If you read Tate’s blog, you already know that finding fighters to shoot the book with was only the beginning of my problems. Since starting work we’ve dealt equipment failure and environmental issues have made shooting difficult. However, I feel extremely lucky to have such good fighters for the book and Tate to help me out with the photos. Having already accumulated close to two hundred techniques, I can honestly say without ego that this will be the best instructional Muay Thai book on the market.

In my next blog, I’ll update everyone on the recent photo shoots, write up a short bio of the twins, post some sample techniques, as well as some training video taken from their gym.