Fitness Britain 2011

Just a mini review of Sunday's Fitness Britain & Musclemania event in St Albans.

Normally I'd include a few photos of the winners, but I was informed a couple of days prior to the event that due to the Discovery Channel filming z-lister Jodie Marsh at the event that media passes had been revoked.  So even though audience members were on a free reign to photograph and video the whole day (as several were doing because no one from Fitness Britain appeared to care), I wasn't allowed to take any pictures throughout the day.  Yep, you might have guessed I was more than a bit p'ed off with this decision.  I wouldn't have even recognised Jodie Marsh, and I was only interested in photographing the athletes on stage.  It's history now, and this is the last time I'll comment on it, but in my view it was a short sighted decision by the organisers, who could have easily found a way around it if they'd wanted.  The athletes deserve all the publicity they can get for their work in what is an extremely tough industry to do well in.

Enough of my ranting, onto my review.

Looking back over the 2 days it's hard to find any real fault with the way the show was run.  Okay registration started 90 minutes late, but that just gave everyone a bit more time to network and make friends.

The venue, the Albans Arena couldn't be faulted, with plentiful and free parking just a few steps away.  I don't know what conditions were like backstage and in the changing areas, but I'm assuming they were good as it was a proper theatre.  Stage lighting is something I've discussed with Fitness Britain on several occasions, as its vital for quality stage photos, appeared to be great.  I'm sure Matt Marsh's photos will reflect that (feel free to post a link in the comments Matt!).

Maybe there were more, but I only noticed one "blip" on stage where some of the competitors were called forward to do turns, while the final 4 in the line up were left in the background and then all were walked off stage.

I noticed a couple of rookie mistakes where competitors made the wrong outfit choices during the sportswear round.  If you wear an outfit that covers up your body that you're being scored upon, expect to be marked down...  if you walk on stage covered up, to make it work you have to do the big reveal and show the judges what they want to see.

I was chatting with a  friend in the lobby while Morris Mendez & Ulysses Junior were doing their seminar, so can't comment on that.

Entertainment was provided by the amazing (for very different reasons) Escape Reality & MEM Gym Boys.  Both put on great acts.

Judging is always subjective, but for the most part I thought the judges were spot on.  There were a couple of results where I might have swapped around first and second places, but that's just my opinion and maybe I'm looking for something a little different to the judges.

Highlight of the evening for me was the reaction of Adis Jakic upon willing the European Model.  Having spent some hours with him on a shoot the following day, he clearly didn't expect to win, and his tears on stage were very real.  I've never seen anyone jump of stage before and kiss the judges!  Good on you Adis!

Roundup - It's great to finally see some good quality shows (yes I include this years FAME event in that) here in the UK, maybe in another couple of years the shows will be big enough for a proper weekend long fitness festival.  A show takes on a different quality / atmosphere when everyone is staying in the same host hotel for 2 or 3 nights as normally happens with the North American shows.

Results (if I've got any wrong or spelled a name incorrectly, please let me know in the comments).

Model - Britain Open Women

1. Sian Toal


2. Nyisha Jordan


3. Karen Lanson

Model - Britain Open Men

1. Duquaine Brooks


2. Ru Wikmann


3. Matt Dunford

Model - Europe Open Women

1. Amanda Castelo Branco

Model - Europe Open Men

1. Adis Jakic


2. Dean Connor


3. Ben Noy

Fitness - Britain Open Women

1. Emmalouise


2. Helen Collins


3. Brenda Mhembere

Figure - Britain Open Women

1. Nyisha Jordan


2. Renata Sulekaite


3. Janet Malinowski

Figure - Europe Open Women

1. Renata Sulekaite


2. Janet Malinowski


3. Cindy Gaillard

Musclemania - Britain Masters Men

1. Rick Waters

Musclemania - Europe Masters Men

1. Jerry Man


2. Rick Waters


3. Nerio Arecco

Musclemania - Britain Teenage Men

1. Connor Rudelhoff

Musclemania - Europe Junior Men

1. Rico Van Huizen


2. David Leonard


3. Rakesh Singh

Musclemania - Europe Open Women

1. Laura Franceschini

Musclemania - Britain Open Men Lightweight

1. Sergiy Topchiy


2. Duquaine Brooks

Musclemania - Britain Open Men Middleweight

1. Derrick Twum


2. Jason Fofana


3. Lex Griffin

Musclemania - Britain Open Men Heavyweight

1. Roger Snipes (also overall winner)


2. Jerry Man


3. Drew Fisher

Musclemania - Europe Open Men

1. Otto Szanto


2. Sandor Nagy


3. Dan Corbett

Musclemania - Europe Open Men Heavyweight

1. Rabe Abadom

Miss Bikini - Britain Short Class

1. Sian Toals (also overall champion)


2. Emma Burrows


3. Madina Dowling

Miss Bikini - Britain Tall Class

1. Brenda Mhembere


2. Debbie Tyrell


3. Svetlana Pavlova

Miss Bikini - Europe Open

1. Sian Toal


2. Gabriala Alliston


3. Natasha Daniel- Gantz

 

Bournemouth Air Festival 2011

Leaving home a little too late, and awful traffic in the Bournemouth area caused us to miss the Red Arrows display shortly after which Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging was tragically killed.  My thoughts go out to his family and friends.  In my opinion it was right to continue with the air displays, but so very wrong not to announce the news of the accident and to keep the crowd updated over the tannoy system.

The highlight of my day at the Bournemouth Air Festival was having a chat with a woman who'd worked on the Lancaster Bomber during the Second World War.  It was the final plane of the day, and had been scheduled several hours earlier.  The look on her face, and excitement made the afternoon for me.

Whenever I photograph an event, whether I'm being paid to be there or not (in this case not), it's always my intention to cover as much as possible of what's going on, which for the Bournemouth Air Festival means photographing the ground events as well.  There was so much more happening that I missed.  Maybe next year I'll spend a couple of days there.

Here's a few of my favourite photos from the day...

Rewind Scotland 2011

Having originally taken over 3000 photos, which were then whittled down to around 500, of 27 acts over 20 or so hours or performances, picking my favourite 12 photos for this blog post was tough.

Rewind Scotland was my first proper grown up festival, and I loved every minute of it.  Able to hang out in the VIP area, and photograph the first 3 songs of all the artists, this was a good gig!

The photos in order below are of, Billy Ocean, Clare Grogan (Altered Images), Doctor & the Medics, Go West, Imagination, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Kim Wilde, Nik Kershaw, Rick Astley, The Human League, Tony Hadley & Toyah.

To view more photos, and to purchase fine art prints, please visit my music photography website, Shoot The Music.

FAME UK 2011

Update: I've had lots of feedback from my posting over the last 24 hours.  Some of it in public via Facebook comments, but a whole load more in private.   Athletes scared to be critical of the event make up the biggest section, but also backstage staff (apparently things were even more of a mess backstage), judges, photographers, even a spectator, and others who wise to remain nameless.   I know I was critical of the organisation, but I was critical for a reason, the athletes who train and diet deserve to be treated better.   One person even called me "diplomatic" with my which is most unlike me.  Anyway, the upshot of this is, and was partly expected, is that the promoter thinks I was "rude", and doesn't want to work with me again.   I'll loose a fair bit of business, but from the comments I've received I've won a fair bit of respect from people involved in the day.  With business still slower than I'd like, maybe I should have kept quiet and said nothing?  I guess only time will tell if my decision to give an honest review was a good thing or not?


Update2: I neglected to mention our compare for the day, Audrey Kaipio in my original blog.  Having a good compare at an event makes such a huge difference to the day.  I've known Audrey for years, but this was the first time I've seen her "at work".  I have to say I was quite impressed.  Good work Audrey.  Although if I can add one slightly negative comment.  I'd argue that it may not have been the best thing to announce on stage that she'd trained some of the winners.  I understand she was rightly proud, and the winners were deserved.  However to everyone else, it might come across as a little bit of biased towards them?  Be proud, but be proud after the event.

Update3: (24th june 2011) It was bought to my attention this morning that the new name for FAME UK is Fame World Tour UK and not Miami Pro as I'd written originally.  Apologies for this mistake on my part.  To save any confusion I've updated my words below accordingly.


Last weekend was the FAME UK event in London was the biggest event of its kind I’ve seen in the UK.  There might be bigger traditional (I call them spit and sawdust events) bodybuilding competitions, but in terms of the model/fitness/bodybuilding events this was the biggest I’ve seen in the UK.

I’m going to write up this as an honest review of how I saw the day, which might upset a few people, although that’s not my intention.  Lessons need to be learnt, and acted upon so that next years Fame World Tour UK (the new name for FAME in the UK) can be bigger and better.

I shall start with the awful venue, Scala at Kings Cross.  It might work well as a nightclub, but as a venue for a fitness event, urgh.  Just horrible.  From what I heard from the competitors they were having to get changed and do make up in near darkness in the changing area.

The stage was too small, and from a photographers point of view I was much closer to the stage than I’d have liked (thanks should go to Sarah Donohue for moving the stupidly high judges table and speakers from the stage - without this Matt and myself would have struggled to do our jobs properly).

Lighting on the stage was actually surprisingly good, especially in the centre of the stage.  Some competitors still made the rookie mistake of wearing large hats during theme rounds.  It might look good as part of the outfit, but means judges and photographers struggle to see your eyes because they are hidden in shadow.

The compact venue did have one big advantage, it made for a great atmosphere of cheering (and occasionally boo’ing when yet another delay was announced) I’ve seen at any show I’ve attended (other than the Arnold Classic).

Registration was a compete mess.  The doors were 20 minutes late opening and athletes and spectators were all mixed up in one long queue.  To make matters worse it was a chilly day in London (probably felt much colder to those with much less body fat than this fat photographer!).  I believe people were still registering an hour after the event was due to start at 12 noon sharp.  Allowing just 30 minutes for registration was a huge error in judgement.

Delays were apparently caused by not having proper information from the Canada HQ that runs FAME, although I have my doubts about this.  Making people queue up outside was just not cool, and very bad planning by the UK promoter.  Maybe it was a health and safety thing that people weren’t allowed to queue up inside the building and up the stairs, either way, hardly a good way to start the day.

There were two hour long 15 minute breaks in the event.  I don’t think anyone would have minded if we’d have been told there was going to be an hour break each time, but everyone was running around getting food, rushing back to the venue only to have to wait for ages for the show to continue.  Not cool.  Even worse was the athletes waiting in the wings to come in for 30 minutes prior to being called on stage.  Why?

I do actually quite like the FAME format, having the figure girls doing more than just standing there with their routine round is good, although I’m still not sure if asking them to do bodybuilding poses is the right thing?

Each athlete who wasn’t doing a routine round (specifically the bikini contest) deserved more stage time.  To work so hard for so many months, then only to be rushed on and off stage in barely 20 seconds has to be a little disheartening.

The overall quality of athletes, not to mention the high numbers was great.   It’s so good to see a UK show starting to rival some of the US & Canada shows I’ve attended in terms of quality and numbers.  Long may it continue!

Emma Louise Bowen might have been the only entrant in the fitness competition, but her physique and were up their with some of the best I've seen.  Hope you actually have some competition to beat next time Emma!

I'm not going to comment on the judging / results because it's always subjective other than to say for the most part I agree with all of the top 3 placings, although it would be nice to have more a more transparent scoring system.  I strongly believe the points scored for all athletes should be published so the athletes know what to work on for next time.

What I will say, after chatting with some of the judges during the event is almost unforgivable.  Unbelievably the judges didn't have a proper list of athletes to work from.  They'd been given a numbered list (not competitor numbers) of people who'd registered prior to the event (not all of whom even turned up on the day), and they were left to fill in competitor numbers themselves when the athletes walked out on stage.  Shocking.

I've attended several FAME shows prior to this, and although not perfect (what show ever is?) they've all shown much more respect to the athletes.  Ultimately most of the blame for the mess has to go the outgoing UK promoter.

Despite a few hiccups, a thumbs up from me for the show.  Hopefully lessons have been learned and can be improved upon.  May it continue to go onto bigger and better things.

Congratulations to Maija Kivelä, Samantha Valene Butler and Maria Scotland for winning your categories and hence a photoshoot with me!   Looking forward to working with you.  Bring cake!

Results:
(if any winners would like me to add a web link to their sites, please add a comment below and I’ll update later)

Bikini

1. Majia Kivela  (won a photoshoot with me)


2. Emma Burrows


3. Chiraz Hasnaoui

Fitness Model - Class A - Male

1. Shaun Straford


2. Adam Reading


3. Jesus Alvarez Sarro

Fitness Model - Class B - Male

1. Roman Gilbert


2. Ru Wikmann


3. Adam Stansbury

Fitness Model - Female

1. Samantha Bulter (won a photoshoot with me)


2. Bex Reading


3. Maija Kivela

Muscle Model - Male

1. Roger Snipes


2. Helle Strubel


3. Jason Fofana

Muscle Model - Female

1. Karolina Raczor


2. Marina Scotland


3. Yvette Shaw

Bodybuilding - Male

1. Helle Strebel


2. Andrew Fisher


3. Sandor Nagy

Fitness

1. Emma Louise Bowen

 

Figure

1. Maria Scotland (won a photoshoot with me)


2. Jackie Field


3. Karolina Raczor

 

Fitness Britain - Manchester

My first Fitness America event this side of the Atlantic.  It was hard for Manchester to compete with the glamorous locations of Florida & California where I've attended Fitness America / Musclemania events before.

I'd teamed up with follow photographer Matt Marsh to offer athletes a package of stage and studio photos that we thought would be hard to beat.  It seemed we've hit on a winning formula, at least for the girls.  100% of the female athletes competing took our £30 package, although the guys the percentage was much lower.  Not quite sure I understand the reasons why someone would put in that much effort into getting on stage and then not want a few professionally taken photos to promote himself with, or just to show the grandkids....

Numbers were low, but the quality of the athletes competing was high.  It's still early days for Fitness America in the UK, so "things can only get better", and I strongly believe they will.  The U-Phorm team who run the UK events are clearly passionate about it, and they ran a great show.

In typical Fitness America style it started late (but finished early), it wouldn't be Fitness America if things ran to schedule.  :-)

The stage at the Royal Northern College of Music was perfect, a proper stage in a proper theatre.  The stage lighting could have been better, and I'm going to talk to the organisers before their next event in Wales to see what we can do to improve things.  Not sure what can be done, but I'm gonna try.

I'm not going to list them all, but congratulations to all the winners!  Hope to see you all at the finals in St Albans in September, and then maybe at the BIG finals in Las Vegas.  Yup, I think I've decided I'm going to go out to Las Vegas in November.  Lou (the main man behind Fitness America) has been telling me for years that I would be better going to his event instead of Olympia, so I'm going to!

Update: I may post more photos from the event later, but for now only those who paid for a package are being featured.  :-)

Fitness & Bodybuilding Event Photography

So I've decided to go on a mission to improve the overall standard of fitness & bodybuilding event photography here in the UK.  Although I've photographed a fair number of big fitness events in North America, so far I've not really done much at home in England.

This will probably come across as a bit bitchy, even though its not intended that way.  I've seen photos from the "top" bodybuilding event photographers in the UK over the last 5 or more years and the standard is quite frankly bloody awful.

This is partly due to the terrible lighting that so many of the events use.  It's also not helped by the tacky advertising banners that most UK event seem to insist on placing directly in the middle of the stage.  It wouldn't be so bad if they employed decent designs to make the banners look half decent.

Urgh!

When you add an average photographer into the equation who is more interested in the business of getting as many athletes as possible to sign up for their mediocre stage photography package, and well, the end result is not good.

Don't even get me started on the quality (or lack thereof) of the backstage photos.

I said don't get me started!

So back to my mission.  What am I doing to try and improve the quality of fitness & bodybuilding event photography in the UK?  Well, first of all I'm teaming up with fellow fitness photographer Matt Marsh for several shows this summer including Fitness Britain (England, Wales & Finals) and also FAME UK.  We're going to be offering athletes an on the day price package of just £30 for stage and backstage photos.

Obviously we only have so much control over the quality of the stage lighting and the amount of crappy banners the event organisers throw up on stage behind the athletes, but its hopefully a step in the right direction.

The backstage photos however we can get to a much higher quality.  Having spoken with Matt today, I know he's investing in some new studio kit so our end result will be hugely than a tatty bed sheet pinned to the wall!

Baby steps.  :-)

Comedy Photography

I'd been invited back by Jan Jack to her regular monthly comedy (Jan Jack's Laughter House) night in Basingstoke.   Shooting comedy in a small club is a tough gig, the lighting is generally low, and of course there's always a chance of being picked on by the comedians (thankfully this has only happened once!).

Joining Jan Jack on stage last night were Danny Dawes, Markus Birdman, Ole and Jez O'Donnell.

For the first time at an event I thought I'd experiment using a monopod (a Manfrotto 694CX if you're interested).  Although it wouldn't be practical to use a monopod at every event, it actually seemed to work rather well here.  I shall definitely be using it again.

Rewind Festival in Scotland

Woohoo!

Last year I had the pleasure of photographing the 80's Rewind concert in Bournemouth last year where T'Pau, ABC, Go West, The Christians, Howard Jones, Sister Sledge & Kool and the Gang played.

I've just had news that I'll be one of the official photographers at the Rewind Festival in Scotland at the end of July.

If you like 80's music as much as I do, the line-up is rather impressive, with Tony Hadley, Rick Astley, The Human League, Billy Ocean, Kim Wilde, ABC, Howard Jones, Bananarama, Nik Kershaw, Go West, Heaven 17, Hue & Cry, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Toyah, T'Pau, China Crisis, Hazel O'Connor, Cutting Crew, Dr and the Medics, Modern Romance & The Bluebells amongst the line up.

It promises to be a rather special weekend indeed!

It seems a bit daft not to try and make my Scotland Photo Experience / Tour happen at the same time.  Worst case I'll probably just hit the road for a few days and head up into the Highlands by myself.

I will be available for photoshoots either side of the festival weekend, so if you'd like to book me, or can refer me to anyone else, please get in contact.   Thank you!

My first audio slide show

Peter Gabriel at Hammersmith Apollo

It was a last minute decision for me to get a ticket to the concert.  Although I'm a big fan of Peter Gabriel, over £70 for a ticket was stretching the budget just a little too much.  However a couple of days before the concert I started following the official Peter Gabriel twitter account [@itspetergabriel].  I knew the concerts were upcoming, but wasn't sure exactly when until seeing rehearsal photos tweeted.  So I decided to see if I could find a reasonably priced ticket.  Ticketmaster, no joy, still over £70.  A couple of other websites were around the £50 mark, but then I found getmein.com.   They had tickets for the Thursday show for just £15.  I'd never heard of getmein.com before, but its a Ticketmaster company, so surely could be trusted?

So the day before the concert I purchased my £15 ticket.  After several confusing emails, one saying an e-ticket was going to be emailed, and the next saying the ticket was being sent by special delivery (and might take 72 hours to arrive), I was a little concerned.  After a couple of worried phone calls to getmein.com, and an agonisingly long way for the postman, my ticket arrived.  I could go to the ball!

I arrived at the Hammersmith Apollo at 6pm, and found myself parking 20 seconds walk away for just £2.50.  Result!

At almost every Gabriel gig I go to, I meet up with my friends, and fellow fans, Alan & Ian.

The first half, I was sat up in the gods, just behind a man with the biggest head ever.  Musically, the songs he played that half were good, but Wallflower asides, weren't really anyone's favourites.  The first half for me can be summed up in one word...  "meh...".

At the half time interval, I found my friends in the smoking area outside, and also got recognised from a wedding I photographed last year in the Midlands.  She recognised the hat first, me second.  Hello Lucie!

Alan has a habit of never sitting in his assigned seating, and always pushing his luck by taking empty seats closer to the front.  This time he'd found 3 empty seats, 3 rows from the front.  I followed him back in. This was more like it.  If you can't see the whites of the performers eyes concerts just don't interest me much any more.

The second half was much more like the Peter Gabriel I love.  Standing ovations came after Signal To Noise & Rhythm of the Heat.  When Solsbury Hill started, there was a mad rush to the front, and I found myself standing just a couple of rows back.  Happy days!

Gabriel might be 60, but he can still hit the notes, and can still put on a hell of a show.  Brilliant stuff Peter!

The reason why the two London gigs happened was because of an offer to Gabriel to film it in 3d.  Personally I think 3d is bullshit, but I have to say their cameras were rather impressive.

Unlike the last time I was close enough to the front of the stage to photograph a Peter Gabriel concert (follow this link for photos), this time I only had with me my compact Canon S95.  While it might be one of the best cameras in its range, it was always going to struggle with getting quality pictures in this environment.  I was pushing the camera, not to mention NoiseNinja in post processing to the limits here.

I tried to get good photos, but essentially these are just "happy snaps" from a good night out.

Update: Just wanted to say hello to the fellow lunatics who have found me via the Peter Gabriel forum.  :-)

Update2: For all those interested, this is the set list...

Intruder
Wallflower
The Boy In The Bubble
Après Moi
Washing Of The Water
The Book Of Love
Darkness
The Power Of The Heart
Biko
San Jacinto
Digging In The Dirt
Signal To Noise
Downside Up
Mercy Street
The Rhythm Of The Heat
Blood Of Eden
Red Rain
Solsbury Hill
In Your Eyes
Don't Give Up
The Nest That Sailed The Sky