Fine Art Fitness session with Ms C

Published by Mike McCarthy on 11 July 201611 July 2016

I’m always up for a challenge. Always.

So when Miss C sent me a link to a body building site with cool images of featured and sponsored athletes and asked if we could schedule something in that style around the time of an upcoming national competition, I responded with a resounding “Yes!”

I had never shot anything similar and have to admit, it did take me a little time to figure out exactly how to best light the setup. I arranged a test session with a friend who is a fitness instructor and tested a couple of setups but it just didn’t look *right* to me. So I did a little research and spent a lot of time considering options on how to best style the look.

Finally, competition weekend arrived and Ms C rocked an incredible 3rd place finish on a national stage, so when shoot day arrived just a couple of days later, she was pretty pumped and ready to rock it in front of the camera. She was in perfect form and it was up to me to make the look work. When she arrived in our downtown studio, we chatted and discussed what we were going to photograph and *how* we were going to approach the images. She had never modeled before never mind modeling nude in front of a camera and crew before and was understandably a little nervous. So, we talked about it and laughed about it and Bryana, our MUA, kept Miss C company and also helped her relax while my assistant, Hilary and I set up the studio equipment.

Well, my research and trials had done their job because with the very first frame, Miss C was thrilled. High contrast, lots of muscle definition. Awesome.

Over the course of about 90 minutes we tried dozens of poses. Laughing and joking about how sore she was going to be the next day having to hold some of the positions. It was a workout for sure, but the results were worth the incredible effort by everyone involved.

Enjoy!