A world exclusive

The location was a freezing cold personal training gym in deepest darkest North London.  My subject for the day was Antony Tagliamonti.  It was so cold that even after several hours of having 2 mini fan heaters going, it still wasn't warm enough to take gloves or fleece jackets off.  Brrr!

These first photos from the shoot feature an invention by gym owner John Fortey (john@innovation-fitness.co.uk 07719 566 126) , and over to him to explain a bit more about it.

"Core Fighter is the ultimate piece of equipment for dynamic sports conditioning. As any Combat athlete knows, it doesn't matter how hard you hit a punch bag or focus pads, it will only improve your technique but do very little to improve the power of a punch or kick as you're not working against any resistance.

Modern combat athletes move in many different directions and have a multitude of directional forces that need to be overcome to generate movement strength. Core Fighter offers the versatility to load those movements in a safe and relatively risk-free manner. Core Fighter also allows the user to generate fast, explosive movement without the need to emphasise to much control on the deceleration phase."

Apparently I am the first photographer to shoot with it, so by default it's a world exclusive!

Here's a quick snapshot taken with my mobile phone showing John and his invention.  Whatever you do don't ever press the big blue button!  Rumour has it that he's going to try and get the machine featured in the next edition of the Angry Birds game!  ;-)

Anyway, enough with my lame attempts at humour, and back to the serious photos with a few more of Antony showing the many ways that John's invention can be used.

One for the ladies – male fitness shoot

When I scheduled the shoot I had no idea it was a Bank Holiday Monday.   I remember not so long ago when I was employed in a regular job that Bank Holidays and extra days off were really important to me, and I never didn't know when they all were.  Now Bank Holidays, and to some extent weekends are just another day in the week.

Anyway, I'm getting off subject.  So I pack up my portable studio and head off up the M3 to my clients apartment in Epsom.  He had cleared a space in his living room, so we had lots of room to set up in.  Helping me for the shoot was part time photographer and full time computer geek Peter Kent.

While he was booking me for the shoot my client mentioned saying "but having an active and regularly updated blog makes a huge difference. It gives the site a far more personal feel and is a great inspiration for me as I take baby steps towards my first DSLR purchase!"  I enjoy writing and updating my blog, and quite a few people have given me positive comments on it, but this is the first time that it's helped me secure business.  This is a good thing indeed.  :-)

The shoot went well, both client and myself were all very chilled.  Always the best way to be on a shoot.  My helper Peter described me as the most relaxed photographer he'd ever seen.  I'm taking that as a compliment!

My client had this to say about the shoot "'Having never been part of a photoshoot before I wasn't sure what to expect. I need not have worried though as Michael was a pleasure to work with and a great help. Plus the pictures look awesome. I'd recommend him to anyone without hesitation. Next stop Men's Health? That's the plan, we'll see what happens! '"

Shooting with the mini studio I have, just a background and a couple of lights, is always a little limiting, but I was really pleased with the end results, and thankfully so was my client.