The 11 in 2011 – Do a Fitness Photoshoot

One of the more “fun” things on my list of 11 things to do in 2011 was a fitness orientated photoshoot.

Since I was competing this year I figured the photoshoot would kill two birds with one stone, it would be a good way to document my progress from previous years and a way to show the kids when they are older that their Mum was pretty hot back in her younger days although I hope to be pretty hot in my olden days too! 😉

To get to ball rolling I contacted Peter and Rosemary Morris at photoshoot.co.nz, they have done a couple of photoshoots for me in the past, a pregnancy shoot when I had Issy in my tummy and a surfer girl photoshoot at Maori Bay when I was offseason.  I feel really comfortable in their presence and their photos are always amazing, even though in my offseason photos I look dumpy .. but an artistically positioned and photographed dumpy person neither the less. (Yes I am my own worst critic).

This photoshoot was to take place in their studio a week out from the Nabba Auckland Champs, photos usually look better after a competition when you are a little more carbed up, but I didn’t have the luxury as I was flying out the day after the comp.  I wanted more “gritty” type photos as opposed to what you would see on the cover of an Oxygen magazine, so I chose the black room and organised my wardrobe choices around that theme.  Rosemary recommended a make up artist and even offered up the studio for me to get ready in.  This was really handy as the kidlets would have found it far too interesting to let Arleen get on with the job of making me photo ready, so having a quiet place just to sit and get ready was AMAZING!

The studio has a dressing room, which allowed me to set up all my wardrobe changes so that Arleen could see the “look” I was going for, she also looked at the photographs I had sent Peter and Rosemary to get the “feel” of the shoot and then she did the make up.  I thought she did fantastic work, it was honestly the best make up I have ever had done .. so she will be my go to lady from now on.

It was then onto the job at hand, the photos!  I got changed into my first outfit and Peter took some test shots and then he and Rosemary played around with the multitude of lights to get it just right.  They would set up some lights, take a photo, frown, change more lights, frown, turn off lights, move lights, take photo, discuss, change more lights, take photo etc etc.  This took some time, either my face wasn’t lit up, my legs were too shadowy or lights were too bright on my midsection and washed out my abs.  However I was happy to stand and smile at the camera till they had everything set up to their liking.

Once that was done, it was onto the photos.  Rosemary grabbed a full length mirror so that I could see what they saw.  This was really handy because I could tense up the areas that were in the cameras eye and move in the light so that the shadows fell just right.

I went through five wardrobe changes and used various props including a huge rope that I “climbed”.  The shoot took just over two hours (and three black coffees) but it felt like that time flew by only my tummy told me it had been that long, because it started complaining near the end of the shoot. 😉

The hardest part of the entire process was waiting for the photos!  Peter and Rosemary offered to put all the photos as low resolution images onto a disc and let me choose the 12 that I wanted them to edit for the final disc. Apparently us physique type people can be quite picky 😉 (and they are right).  Peter edited one of the rope shots so I could envisage what the final shots would look like if I chose one/some from that set, they did everything they could to put me in control which I very much appreciated.

I sent my choices to them .. I winged my way to Europe on our family vacation and they did their magic

They came out amazing.  Although I didn’t get to see the final shots until I returned from my holiday in Europe they were worth the wait!

If you would like to see all of the photos from the shoot check out the album or they are on my facebook page.

Till next time

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