Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, knock out eight, it's Octomom in the ring!

Dropping the f-bomb, shooting the bird, Octomom dukes it out with local bartender Cassandra "Patience" Andersen at the Ocean Manor Resort on Miami Beach in Fort Lauderdale on August 20, 2011.

I never wanted to be a tabloid photographer or paparazzi but here I am banging away, shooting frames of Nadya Suleman, aka the Octomom, who came to international attention when she gave birth to octuplets. The controversial mom conceived them through in vitro fertilization.

Miami Herald writer Glen Garvin called the boxing match “an evening bizarre even by the standards of manufactured media events in what will doubtless be remembered as the golden age of faux fame.”

Using my finely honed photojournalistic skills I scanned the boxing ring, anticipating where to capture the most compelling images, while angling for a view of the crowd and their incredulous expressions.

That’s when the pseudo prosumer photographer piped up and asked the fight promoter to keep the media on one side of the ring so multiple flashes would not mess up his pictures.

Are you kidding me? I love it when I catch an errant strobe in the background. Sometimes you have to stand your ground so I piped up, expressed my concern and stood in a spot that would make famed photographer Robert Capa proud.  He once said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”


Capa may not have had "pulp journo" in mind but I can apply his approach just the same.

Photographer Al Diaz works the ropes. Photo by Michael Laughlin.