The last 5 weeks have been busier than I can tell you. Among the many shoots I have done and in my many travels was an assignment to shoot with Jamie Eason. If you have thumbed through any men's or women's health, fitness or bodybuilding magazines you have stopped and stared at photos of Jamie. She is without question the hottest model in the health and fitness business today.
The first part of the shoot was a day in a studio in Pasadena California for BodyBuilding.com, the largest bodybuilding and fitness resource in the world. The request from their art department was not unusual for this type of shoot but for two things. They wanted images with movement and they were possibly going to need really large files. To accomplish that I made arrangements to bring in a medium format Mamiya 645 AFDII with a Leaf 65 Digital Back.
Lighting was with a Profoto Acute 2400R pack and the Profoto 7 ft Reflector was used as the main light. I really enjoyed using this set up, it is really flawless and easy to work with. I would also note that the camera system was supported by a brand new Induro carbon tripod and ballhead. It proved itself to be rock solid and convenient to use while at the same time being lightweight. I liked this tripod system from the moment I first saw it and my choice was a good one.
Never too simple, my makeup artist and hair stylist were on the set as was my lighting specialist and assistant. And obviously my second shooter was on hand to shoot background. We also had a huge amount of secondary equipment on hand including camera bodies, lenses, additional lighting gear, computers and more. As near as I could estimate we had $75,000 of gear on hand. But I don't take chances when a client is spending that kind of money and so much is being arranged for just one shoot.
Leaf and MAC Group were kind enough to give me some extra tech support to make sure I had it under control to be shooting tethered to my Apple computer. And I must also thank Samy's for making sure I had on hand all of the extra gear that was needed.
The very next day found us at Gold's Gym in Pasadena California. This is a huge gym with a very real fun area which is outside. What could be better than having part of your gym in the Southern California sun. Shooting in a gym always has it's own unique requirements. However I had been here only the week prior and knew ahead of time what the layout was like and what the lighting was like.
I knew for this shoot I wanted to use the ambient light in the gym, outdoors and with some on camera fill flash. I also knew I would be shooting at slightly higher ISO. Gym shooting in an operating gym also needs to be a little faster. The purpose for these images was going to be more stock for future use for BodyBuilding.com. So my gear choice was a Canon 1DMkII, a 24-70L 2.8 lens and a Speedlite 580 flash unit. And as usual I had plenty of back up gear on hand. And even better I had the art director from BodyBuilding.com with me so I made him carry the extra gear. He thought it was a fair trade because he got to spend the day with Jamie! Thanks Paul! And a special Thank You for the support from the staff of Gold's Gym.
It was a great two days of shooting and we all had a lot of fun. So please check back and I will fill you in more on what I have been doing in the last few weeks. Thanks!
