Interview with Tracy Lee

She can be seen cageside taking photos at just about every major UFC, Strikeforce and other MMA event worldwide. In addition to her excellent fight photography, she also takes a wide range of photographs revolving around the MMA world at fighter training camps, social events as well as casual photos of the fighters with their families.

In addition to photography, she can also be considered a web guru as she has launched many successful websites including CombatLifestyle.com and NapkinNights.com.

We were able to cover Tracy’s background and photography career and are pleased to present this interview with her.

Please note that HalfKorean.com comments/questions are in BOLD.

Background: The Basics on Tracy Lee

Where were you born, raised and currently reside?
I was actually born in the Cayman Islands, in the Caribbean Islands, northwest of Jamaica. My mom and dad met in Jamaica. So, I started out really exotic. When I was about two weeks old we moved to Houston, Texas and lived there until I was about eight. I spent most of my school life in Sacramento, California. I moved to Vegas in 2003 and had come out here to expand one of my websites and didn’t plan on moving here originally. I don’t know how but just ended up here. It goes to show that everything happens for a reason.

How did your parents meet?
My mom was from Chicago and an adventurist type. She had gone to Jamaica on vacation, met some guy, and moved down there. That didn’t last too long and she ended up meeting my dad. I don’t know why my dad was in Jamaica. I do know that he was an acupuncturist, I know that much.

Do you have any siblings?
I have a younger sister and an older half brother who is full Korean.

Do you speak Korean?
I don’t know Korean at all and I very much regret not having learned it. I wish it was something that my dad had pushed on me. But, I was only around my dad until I was about five.

What is your favorite Korean food?
Honey Pig in Vegas is my favorite Korean BBQ and to me it is pretty authentic. It is very comparable to what I had when I was out in Seoul with Denis (Denis Kang) and his brothers.

Other than your sister, did you grow up around other mixed Koreans?
Plenty of mixed people in general but as far as mixed Koreans, no. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t even until recently that I even recognized the difference between Korean and the other Asians

Have you ever experienced any identity issues from being mixed?
No, I never really thought about it. I got a lot of questions about my background. It’s funny because my mom is white; but she cooked for us Korean food all the time. So, I grew up eating Korean food a lot.

When was the last time you have been to Korea?
The first and last time was earlier this year in March. I had never been before so that is why I went. I was really excited to go. I had a layover in Korea so I decided why not extend it. I had gone to Japan, Australia, Thailand and then Singapore. I hit up Denis and told him I was going to Korea. He told me that his brother Tommy was going to be fighting for Road FC, so it was an amazing coincidence. I’m planning on going to Korea again in November because I’m going to UFC in Macau.

What do people who meet/see you think your ethnicity is?
Wow, I get everything all over the board. I get Filipino and every once in a while Mexican. I think people are still confused as to what I am. But I do usually get Asian of some kind.

Career: Photography & MMA

Has photography always been a passion of yours?
I think I kind of fell into it. I wasn’t a kid carrying a camera around or anything. I started having a camera in hand somewhere in my mid-teenage years. I was taking pictures for fun. I had a friend who worked at a Costco photo center who would develop rolls of film for me. He would develop 8-10 rolls of film for like five bucks. Because of that, it started the addiction. I was taking pictures at parties and of friends. I also did skateboarding and snowboarding photography. I then started doing parties and it turned into a business. That’s what led me to Vegas. I had started a website called NapkinNights.com and shooting for that is what brought me to Vegas.

Did you take photography courses?
I taught myself and have not taken courses. I learned from books.

How did you get connected with MMA photography?
I was shooting all the nightlife stuff and doing parties, I ended up going to a lot of fight after-parties. The fight after-party pictures I would put on NapkinNights.com and I would see this tremendous increase of traffic. I was wondering what was really going on here. So, I started going to all of the fight after-parties. It was all social at first by becoming friends with a lot of the fighters. They knew to hit up Tracy as she has all the hook-ups at the clubs. I then went to my first fight and I loved the social aspect of it. After that, it wasn’t so much about the social aspect; it was more about following the actual fights. I wanted to be able to go to the fights for free! Who doesn’t, right? So, my way was by using my camera to get me in the door. It worked. At that time, there weren’t a lot of people doing it.

Were you already a fan of the sport?
No, it started as a result of going to the fights socially and then eventually becoming a fan.

Do you pursue other projects outside of MMA (photography or other) as well?
Everything I pretty much do revolves around MMA. At this point, the only thing that I’m doing that is not MMA, but kind of still MMA is that I’m doing on-camera interviews for Alienware. I’m the only one that they sponsor that is not a fighter. I’m involved in doing on-camera interviews and videos of MMA fighters, so it is still MMA stuff.

I also do photo shoots. But, again, it is almost all MMA stuff but not directly the fight stuff. So, it is like photo shoots for a clothing line or shooting Forrest Griffin’s daughter for her birthday party flyer. I’ve done family portraits for Mark Munoz and all kinds of stuff. Not necessarily shooting an MMA fight but shooting at a gym or people.

Who is your favorite person to photograph?
I’m such an adventurist person that I just like meeting and talking to people. I’m sure that there are some favorites but nothing that really jumps out. I’m friends with everybody and I just like to have a good time and shoot stuff. I just kind of go with it and am very spontaneous, so it is really hard to say just one person that I just love to shoot more than any other people.

Are you able to still enjoy the fights and the event even while shooting?
It is not quite the same. When you are shooting and watching from behind the camera, I’m not there to party and have fun. So, it’s not like I can scream and yell and have a good time like the fans. But, on the flip-side to that, I love it. I love the challenge of trying to shoot a fight. Shooting a fight from cage side is really hard. People don’t understand and think I just click a button. I have to deal with variances in light across the cage, fighter movement, the cage itself and the ref trying to stay centered on the action. I also have to choose a photo that defines the fight and send it to Yahoo in between each match; I have to load pictures and make sure all of my batteries are charged. I don’t know how many times I’ve had a card fail on me or my card reader is broken. You kind of adapt. On top of that stuff on the side, while shooting the fights you never know which position you are going to get until you get there. You might get a really good position or a really shitty position. But, you know what? I had the shittiest position for the Anderson Silva/Chael Sonnen fight, or I thought it was a pretty shitty position, but I had the best position to get a picture of that knee. It’s always a challenge.

Obviously you have to carry quite a bit of camera equipment with you. What do you typically use on any given night?
I typically have an extra battery for each camera. I’ll also have my chargers with me for each camera, as long as I don’t forget them. I don’t really keep the largest memory card, I have a 16GB. All the other ones are 2GB, 4GB or 8GB. The reason behind that is that if one fails and if I just loaded 16GB of info on it, I just don’t want that to happen. It’s just easier to have a whole bunch of small ones and then flip back and forth through them.

I carry two cameras and use two cameras. If one goes bad, I have another, which would suck. My backpack is about 50 pounds with my laptop, two cameras and I usually have four or five lenses with me. I’ve recently started carrying a third camera, just in case.

Do you work by yourself or do you have any assistants?
I recently had a guy start working with me and is like an intern and been helping me out. Other than that, it has been me pretty much. I’ve worked with Esther Lin, another female photographer. I’ve worked for Fox Sports and with Yahoo for the last couple years. I have my own website, CombatLifestyle.com, which is where all my behind the scenes photos go.

How supportive have your parents/family been in your pursuit of the professional pursuits?
I have no relationship with my mom or my dad at this point. I haven’t seen my dad since I was eight. I haven’t seen my mom in about six years. My mom had always pushed me to be super independent and do my own thing, so I definitely owe that to her.

Was it difficult to be accepted and taken seriously in the MMA world?
Extremely hard. It wasn’t so much from the fighters really because I already knew a lot of them. I made it a rule to be standoffish and not hook up with the guys and be as professional as possible. That was very important to me and I believe that’s part of the reason that I’ve gained the level of respect that I have within the industry.

When it came to the fans, the fans still to this day are very difficult. I have a feeling that it is not only me because a lot of the fighters experience this as well. It was definitely difficult to get past all that negativity and in spite of all things that you think this is all about; photography is what it is all about and is what is important to me. That took a long time for people to look past my shell to my work.

So, how does it work? Do people pay you for your photos now?
Where I make most of my money is when I get calls to do photo shoots or when I work on social media and websites. I’m all over the board and it’s like anything that people can hire me to do, I do it. I do a lot of different things to make my money so that it doesn’t come from any one source. It is something I’ve learned, adapting.

Do you have a favorite out of the three prominent mixed Korean fighters (BJ Penn, Benson Henderson & Denis Kang)?
I love them all and they are all great. Ben is such a positive person and a pleasure to be around. But, I would have to say Denis is definitely my closest friend of the three. I’ve hung out with Denis all over the world. We’ve hung out in Japan, Canada, Ireland, and Korea and all over. Except the United States, go figure. I’ve only hung out with Denis once in the States.

What do you think of the rise of popularity of MMA in Korea?
I am really looking forward to them doing a UFC in Korea. I went there and was blown away and felt like I was famous there. I couldn’t believe how many people knew who I was, in spite of the language barrier. They knew my name and came up and took pictures, introduced themselves and it was amazing to me. That’s why I want to learn Korean. People that know me that well, I’d like to be able to communicate with them.

Do you think we’ll see a UFC event in Korea in the near future?
Oh yes. They have a UFC correspondent in Korea.

How did it feel to find out you had fans in Korea?
You know why I have a following? It is really funny, to tell you the truth. They have concocted a love story of me and Denis back in 2008 when I had went to cover him in Canada and then I went to Japan with him. So, I guess, they have held close this love story this whole time. I heard they have put Arianny and Korean Zombie in a love story too. They held on to this for all those years and then I show up there and Denis is there. So, of course, they think I am there for Denis even though I am there on a Saturday night and he’s been there all week. So, that is how they knew me originally and they have been following me ever since. There are some twins in the media over there and have nicknamed me “nuna” for older sister. I actually have a Korean middle name, Yoon-Joo. My full Korean name is Lee Yoon-Joo (이윤주).

What are some goals that you have set for yourself and how many have you accomplished?
I’m always working towards new goals. Right now, I’m trying to finish my site re-design and that is a big thing that I’m trying to get done because it is such a big project for me. That is a short term goal.

Long term, I really want to open a photo studio and work on my social media stuff a lot more. I do a lot of social media consulting and web design. I’d also like to not travel quite as much as I do. I say that now but then I get bored and then I wonder what else I can do. I’ve been traveling a lot for the better part of the last 9 years. I would go back and forth between Sacramento and Vegas every two to three weeks when I first moved here. In 2005 I started expanding NapkinNights.com into multiple cities across the country and I was opening cities and traveling constantly. I’d say it has been like 7 years straight of travel. I’d like to maybe not travel so much.

I don’t see this stuff slowing down for me. There are more and more and more fights. I took a break in June. I didn’t go to Florida, New Jersey or Brazil. I may not go to the UK or Brazil in the next few months for those fights either.

Random

What’s your current relationship status?
I’m extremely single. I have yet to find anyone who understands the travel and the fact that I’m around half naked professional athletes all the time.

Have you ever had any ethnic dating preferences?
Typically I like white or mixed guys. But, I’ll tell you something. Being in Korea and seeing some of the Korean guys; there are some good looking Korean guys. I was really surprised. I like taller guys and I saw a lot of tall Korean guys.

What are some of your hobbies and interests?
I’m a snowboarder and love snowboarding. I love being in shape and I work out quite a bit. I love paddleboarding and love doing outdoors stuff like hiking. I go hiking quite a bit. When I’m around Cowboy (Donald Cerrone), we wakeboard and he’s taken me horseback riding. I go to Valley of Fire which is about 45 minutes outside of Vegas and go hiking there. I like being active and am a workaholic and love to work.

Anybody in particular that you respect/look up to?
That’s always changing. I definitely look up to Susumu Nagao as he’s a legend in MMA photography. I had the pleasure of shooting alongside him in Japan which was cool. There are a ton of photographers I look up to and I take online courses from them.

Do you like soju?
I don’t drink at all. I don’t have a specific reason, just don’t like to drink.

How did you find out about HalfKorean.com and what did you think about the site when you first saw it?
I think I heard about it through Denis originally. It is great and interesting. It’s funny because we were talking about this when I was in Korea because we were at a table and six of us were half Korean. It was me, Denis, his brothers Tommy and Julien, and two other friends. It was amazing to have that many half Koreans and be in Korea.

Oh, you know who else is half Korean? Sean Shelby’s wife. He’s one of the UFC matchmakers and his baby is a quarter Korean.

Any words that you would like to pass on to the mixed Korean community?
I think the Korean community has a lot of very talented people in it, whether they be half Korean or full.. Denis Kang, Ben Henderson, Korean Zombie, Psy 😉 and more.. I am thrilled to be a part of this group as well. To all: If you work hard, stay motivated and know that you can do anything you put your mind to, you can succeed!!

We want to thank Tracy for doing this interview with us and we look forward to seeing her cageside at many future fights!

You can follow and connect with Tracy at her official website, CombatLifestyle.com, Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

Interview by: David Lee Sanders

Posted: 9/28/2012

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