Published in the Henley Standard

Excuse the poor quality mobile phone picture (I hope to update it later with something a little better), but this picture is in todays Henley Standard.  The buggers neglected to credit me, but it's a picture from my shoot with Danica Hunter.

Photos on business cards

I did a photo-shoot for York based Tower Travel a few months ago.  This is one of the many ways they have used the photos so far, on some shiny new business cards.

Fitness Portfolio Book

With just 1 day to go before the Bodypower Expo in Birmingham my fitness portfolio book from Ubyu arrived.  They even sent me an email to say my delivery would arrive between 10:08 and 11:08 (it arrived 10:20).  Most impressive.

The book took a few days longer than their suggested 10 days print time, so bear this in mind if you're placing an order.

Ubyu have their own software which you can use to design the book with.  This worked very well for me, it was quick and easy.  Even with the 400+ pages and hundreds of images things went very smoothly.

My only disappointment, and its quite a big one because it's so obvious, is the cover.  The print and quality are all great, but the alignment of the images is not.  The spine, which was sized to their website calculator suggestion, sadly didn't quite work out right.  Add to that the front & back images are not centred correctly and you'll see my disappointment.   Everything looked just fine on their software which I used to design/upload the book.

Whether this is my fault for not preparing the images correctly I'm not sure.

Only time will tell if the quality of the book will stand up to lots of sticky fingers flicking through it at fitness events this year, but for now the quality of the binding seems top notch.  Very much like the option to choose the colours of the inside cover, head bands & the marker ribbon.  A nice and unique touch.

I've included a picture of my hands to show the scale/size of the book.  I wanted something I could pop in my backpack or camera bag, so I opted for their smallest size, 15 x 20cm.  I made the right choice, the size is perfect for me.

Excuse the picture quality, these snaps were taken with my phone camera.  These pictures doesn't do the quality of the book justice.  The printing is as good as I've seen in any print-on-demand books I've had done before.

I wish they didn't have such a silly name, even if I could remember it, I've no idea how to pronounce it, which makes recommending them a tad tricky, even though I'm happy to!

My own calendar

Thanks to a major calendar publisher in Hong Kong it finally it seems like my dream of having my own calendar is going to come true.  Featuring 12 very pretty girls from shoots I've done in Canada & USA over the last few years.

Just this sneak preview of the back cover for now.  Designs may change, but as far as I know the selection of 12 girls is final.

Leigh Brandt is inside Inside Fitness again

Just a small picture this time, again from our photoshoot in Las Vegas last September, but they all count.  Congratulations Leigh on yet other publication together.

Leigh Brandt in Inside Fitness magazine

Congratulations to one of my favourite models, Leigh Brandt on getting second place in Inside Fitness magazines Hot & Fit 100!

The photo is from a photoshoot I did with Leigh back in September 2010 while we were both in Las Vegas for Olympia.  The pool at The Orleans isn't exactly the nicest looking in town, but in what was only my second shoot with Leigh, we still managed to get some great shots!

Surely it can't be long before Leigh graces many more magazine covers.  I predict 2011 is going to be a big year for this lovely lady.

Go Leigh!

Published in Planet Muscle

Having gatecrashed (with his permission I might add), the FitHeat photoshoot organised by fellow fitness photographer Marc Thyssen at the Mandalay Bay back in September I was asked to take a few photos of a couple of the models there.

Fast forward a couple of months and Planet Muscle magazine ask me if they can use one of the photos I took of fitness model Pia Friedrich.  Today I was sent a copy of the tearsheet from the February issue of Planet Muscle.  It's only a little picture at the bottom of the page, but they all count!

Congratuluations to Marc for getting the cover with Monica Brant.  Proof that hard work does indeed pay off!

Training day with Karla Adams

I've done a couple of shoots with Karla Adams over the last few years.  Both in the deserts around Las Vegas.  Some of the photos were recently featured in southern California lifestyle magazine ieStyle.

Congratulations Karla on another great magazine feature.  Looking forward to our third shoot.  :-)

Larissa Reis in Muscle Evolution Magazine

The feature with IFBB Figure athlete Larissa Reis in Muscle Evolution Magazine looks great!

We shot just a day after Larissa was competing on stage at the 2009 Olympia competition.  She finished 12th, but from what I could see she should have placed much higher.

We drove to the dry lake beds just outside Jean 30 minutes south of Las Vegas.  It was hot, dry, dusty, and not at all nice conditions to work in, but we had a job to do, and these are some of my favourite photos I've taken in the Las Vegas deserts.  On hand to help out on reflector duty was a friend from England, Abigail.

Thanks to all concerned for making this shoot and publication possible!

(I've deliberately saved the JPGs with lots of lossy compression, so if you want to see things better, go and buy the magazine!)

 

Magazine cover & feature with IFBB figure model Larissa Reis

My second feature in South African bodybuilding magazine Muscle Evolution Magazine features IFBB figure model Larissa Reis.

I haven't seen the inside feature yet, but one of my photos of Larissa from our shoot in the Las Vegas desert a day after she was on stage at Olympia in 2009 is on the cover.

Many thanks to magazine owner Andrew Carruthers and of course Larissa for making this possible.  :-)

I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the magazine and seeing how the feature looks.

 

A Christmas card

This is about as Christmassy as I'm going to get this year.  One of my photos has been used on a Christmas card being sold by St Mary Magdalen church in Bath.

The picture was taken during a wedding I photographed there last year.

Please excuse the crappy mobile phone snapshot taken on the arm of my armchair.  I'm warm and comfortable and couldn't be bothered to move.

Leigh Brandt shows off our latest tearsheet

A few days after shooting with Leigh in Las Vegas she sends me this photo of her with our latest tearsheet, a 4 page feature in South African magazine Muscle Evolution Magazine.

You’re fired – A photo from the Bournemouth Echo

A little birthday tearsheet to help me celebrate!  One of my favourite ever fire photos is published in today's Bournemouth Echo.

The subject is Simon Chainey at his Southern Lights Festival back in June.

First South African Publication

It's been a week of firsts.  My first Indian wedding, my first wedding in London and today I receive a copy of my first South African publication!

Good times indeed.

I photographed Leigh in August 2009, on the morning of the day when she won her IFBB Bikini pro card.  We were shooting in the not so glamorous Richmond / Airport area of Vancouver.  We decided to move the shoot part way through because we were all getting bitten to death by mosquitoes.  I was quite well covered, but Leigh, obviously couldn't be and I was a little worried the bites might effect her chances in the competition later that day.

With the help of Dean, her then fiancée, now husband, we had a great shoot as I hope these photos show.

Interesting use of the photos by MEM, cutting out the backgrounds is not something that magazines normally do to this extent.  Looks good though!

Big thank you to Muscle Evolution Magazine and of course to the stunning Leigh Brandt.

A tearsheet in Planet Muscle with IFBB fitness star Larissa Reis

It's been quite a long time since my last photo was published in Planet Muscle magazine, but the dry spell is over with a little help with IFBB fitness star Larissa Reis.  We shot just a day after Olympia in Las Vegas in 2009 so Larissa was in amazing shape having just stepped off stage a few hours before.

 

Buy the little black book now!

Buy it now!

With, if I've counted correctly 183 models, almost 200 full colour photos, this is a rather big little black book.  All of the photographs included are from outdoor on location shoots from all over the place.  Countries include Malta, England, Wales, USA and Canada.  While cities include London, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and even little old Winnipeg!

My little black book

I'm self publishing a book of photos.  I'm calling it "Michael Palmer's Little Black Book of Scantily Clad Women".

With all the positive thinking in the world I don't expect to make much money from it.  Self publishing in this case means printing on demand, and that brings the cost price of the book up hugely.  I expect the selling price to be around £35 for the hard back edition, and sadly I won't be making much of a profit on that.

However, I hope it's going to generate a bit of fun publicity

Will these business card designs get a reaction?

I'm after opinions on these design ideas.

Will they get a reaction?

The moose is my general business card, and the others are pitched at weddings, family & children and fitness photography.

Canvas Prints Website

It's been a long time coming, but finally my canvas prints website thisisthepicture.com is finished and online.  For now there are 48 canvas prints available, from subjects as wide ranging as a ballet leap to a seagull.

At the moment I'm only offering prints for sale in the UK.  Logistically sending canvas prints to North American isn't going to be easy (or cheap).  However if there is demand I'll figure out a way and maybe source a supplier / manufacturer in the USA or Canada.

Please take a look.  The world of e-commerce is a new beast to me, so any constructive feedback will be gratefully received.

A tiny photo published in Oxygen

The latest issue of Robert Kennedy s Oxygen magazine arrived on my doormat this morning.  In the Future of Fitness section is a tiny photo of Christine Taylor from our shoot last summer in Quebec City.

It was my first and to date only shoot in Quebec City so I didn't really have much idea for locations.  Christine suggested we shoot in the Parc des Champs de Bataille.

The weather can best be described as "meh".  It was a rather cold mid Septembers day, the sky was grey, and it was all a bit rubbish.

We started shooting in the park.  Nothing sexy or provocative - just "Oxygen" type fitness shots.  Brrr it was cold.  I was in my coat and gloves so after doing a few shots I suggested we move somewhere lower (we were on top of a big hill) in the hope of finding somewhere a little more sheltered from the wind.  At the same time we were leaving a police car pulled up - I figured it was just doing its rounds and making sure nobody stole any tress or something, so I didn't think anything of it.

We found another spot in the park and were about to start shooting again when the same police car pulls up and out gets the obviously very bored policeman.  Clearly not enough crime in Quebec City.  He muttered something at me in an angry tone in French, which of course I understood nothing off.  He translated and said something about naked girls in the park...  I was bemused because a) there was sadly no nakedness, b) there wasn't anyone else around, and c) this cop was being a complete and utter dick.

He moved us on, we found a better location, the sun came out, and everyone was happy!

I've almost never had a problem with doing photoshoots in Canada.  The only other place in Canada I've had an issue is when trying to shoot in the park where they hold the formula 1 grand prix in Montreal.  The rest of Canada, never a problem.  Ever.  Pains me to say because I love Canada, but Quebec is weird!