Wrestler Was a Wildlife Photographer Before Getting Into the Ring
Skye Blue is a professional wrestler who before donning sequins and spandex was more concerned with shutter speeds and sharpness when she was a wildlife photographer.
Skye Blue from the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) promotion revealed on the AEW Unrestricted podcast last week that before entering the sports entertainment business she had a passion for capturing animals and nature.
The podcast host brought it up saying: “I didn’t know this about you, you used to be a wildlife photographer?”
“Yeah, so I used to be like a super shy kid,” Skye Blue replies. “And I like hated social things like men terrified me. I would hide behind my mom, and I went to a private school because I was so scared of crowds, which is super crazy to think now that I do this.”
Blue, whose real name is Skye Dolecki, went on to explain how she got into photography.
“I used to photograph like; we’d go to the zoo, we would go to wildlife preserves,” she explains.
“So I used to work at a wildlife preserve and they kind of got me into it. I brought my camera one day. I was just taking pictures of all the animals that we work with and I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun.’ And then I just kind of did it from there.”
Blue lost interest in photography once she became an active wrestler but says it still runs in her family.
“And then it just I just kind of fell off it once I started wrestling,” she says. “But then mom picked it up, and now mom brings a camera to all my wrestling shows that she’s able to go to. The first training place I went to, she did the photography for them.”
23-year-old Blue, who is known for her high-flying antics, is not the only athlete to dabble in both sports and photography. Baseball pitcher Randy Johnson has thrown himself back into photography after retiring from the mound.
Before he was a ten-time All-Star, Johnson studied photojournalism at the University of Southern California from 1983 to 85.
“My career as a Major League baseball pitcher has been well documented, but what is not as well known is my passion for photography,” Johnson writes on his website.
“Baseball became my occupation for two decades but my love of photography never left. Following my 2010 retirement, I was able to focus my attention back to this passion.”
Image credits: Feature photo courtesy of All Elite Wrestling.
