After a few years of Batman running high in pop culture, this year is going to belong to Superman. In a few weeks Man of Steel is going to appear on our screens and make us all believe again – as happened in 1978 – that a man can fly, move faster than a speeding bullet and check out ladies underwear through their jeans or shirt. Ok, maybe not the latter but I'm sure it will go a long way towards creating a new generation of believers. In any case, it wouldn't look great to have a fat Superman and a person I've been working with a lot recently is doing everything he can to help the personal fitness market by writing eBooks about every training regime out there, and with some aplomb too! Our first shoot together was a towards the last quarter of 2012 and it was one of his first books where he was talking about general weight loss, giving readers advice, tips and, the part where I came in as a photographer, exercises to follow and progressions. We must have taken some 200 images in that session and it was this particular shoot that whet my apetite for the control and intricacies of studio and flash photography.
One of the great things about spending time with Ash is his enviable enthusiasm to constantly create new WORK. We've now worked together on either photoshoots for different books and it has given me the opportunity to develop my understanding of controlling and manipulating light in my images.
And this is where we get to the crunch point in the blog post.
It's been so important to the early stages of my development that I could create work with someone who not only had the patience to work along side my 'experiments' but was comfortable spending time, collaborating with trusted.
Our last shoot, which was focusing on how to train your legs, generated some of the best fitness and sports style images I've shot to date and showed some of the insane superhuman strength that the exercises can develop.
Fitness shoots I feel definitely lend themselves to controlled lighting conditions and by pushing myself not only to improve and understand this style but to do it to help create what is becoming a library of fitness eBooks is very fulfilling. They say that inspiration doesn't find you, you have to go looking for it with an axe and I think it's often overlooked by many who are trying to start up a creative business that you do actually, at some point, have to grab hold of some inspiration and create something. Sharing that inspiration with someone and creating as a team has definitely helped me develop and continue to develop lighting setups, skills and techniques to push further and along that road I will get to a stage where I can pull some strings and make some of my creative photoshoots happen.
What came first... being creative or creating work.
I'll leave you with one of the first images I shot for Ash, and then one of the last. I'm excited where my skills can move to and I'll see you at the next Olympics when I've photographed the Olympic Team GB portraits! :)
If you want to check out Ashley's catalogue of work, you can check out his Amazon author page at this link to find all his books and I can thoroughly recommend each and every one if you're interested in fitness or are a bit of a gym buff.
You can also follow his blog at Train, Sleep, Eat, Repeat to really keep in touch with any upcoming news or eBooks.
Enjoy Superman - Man of Steel when it comes out, and remember, if you're struggling to create or find your inspiration, try finding someone to share it with!