On Assignment : Athletic Photo Shoot Part 2

Took longer than I expected to get back to blogging. I finished up my marathon training and completed my first marathon and then took some time to support and photograph my teammates down in Panama City Beach at Ironman Florida. I've had a couple shoots sprinkled in between and I'll get to those posts in the future.

In the meantime, Part 2 with Krista Klumpp. We finished our shoot inside the studio and moved outdoors for an environmental setup.  The purpose of these shots were to show off her physique. She wants to be a fitness model and we needed full body shots, but we wanted shots that you'd see in a health and fitness magazine.

 Once she started on these exercises, you could see the definition in her abs that we were unable to see in the more casual shots.

Next up were a couple more casual posed shots but with a little attitude and intensity.

This shot is my favorite. I like the serious look she has along with the definition of her athletic form. We got lucky with a slight breeze that blew her hair back and provides a little bit of movement. There is no photoshop on this image. The muscles are all from hard work in the gym and from years of cheerleading.

I also did a couple environmental head shots just so she'd have a variety of looks when putting her portfolio together.

Last up were some shots that demonstrated her flexibility as well as her fitness and form.

I really like this location. It was an outside courtyard. The 3 walls and grass area worked real well for these shots. We ran out of time as there were other spots around that I wanted to use. But I'm really happy at how well these all turned out.

I finished up the shoot with a couple more relaxed but still athletic type poses.

All of these images where shot with only a 580EXII Speedlite and a 60" reflective umbrella. I did run into a problem after a couple setups. The wind knocked down my light stand and collapsed the umbrella, making it useless. I had to improvise. I had smaller shoot thru umbrellas, but they wouldn't provide as large a light source as I wanted. I pulled out a 42" white reflector and had Krista's friend hold it. I was able to bounce the light off the reflector giving me a very similar quality of light as the 60" reflective umbrella.

I really enjoyed this shoot and it was probably the only shoot so far that I was able to squeeze such a variety of looks and setups in only 4 hours. I expect to see Krista get a lot of fitness modeling jobs in the future. Not because of the photos I took (although that would be nice if it was), but because she was so easy to work with, was very comfortable in front of the camera and because I think she's able to show very different looks.

I've already been contacted by several other fitness type models or trainers looking to do similar work. I hope I'm able to do more of these since I really enjoy working with athletes and making some really powerful and stunning images.

If you're looking for a portrait photographer in the Atlanta area, visit my portfolio.