You can now search for Florida (and some national) bodybuilding contests by region on the Contest Search Page.
I also made the city search a little smarter and faster. Enjoy.
Archive
Category: G’ville
New shots of fitness competitor Toni are up on her page.
These shots were taken at a nearby diner before it opened for the day, and the lighting was very eclectic and fun– everything from neon to soft light to reflections from the chrome.
The presence of an old VW van for sale in the parking lot, combined with Toni’s fortunate choice of casual wardrobe, also enabled me to recreate a sort of idealized 1950s vacation snapshot or two.
I still have two? three? more shoots with Toni waiting to be posted (including one at the location with the breathtaking light), but to be fair to everyone I’m trying desperately to process all the backlog in chronological order.
Next up are new shots of Adrienne Ann Smith, who has been extraordinarily patient waiting for her updates.
I have never appreciated my television’s MUTE button more than when CBS broadcasts a college football game.
Shots from the 2009 All South are starting to go up on the site.
I made a boneheaded mistake: I had the light meter set to balance the whole frame rather than center-weighted. Either I forgot to reset it or I bonked the dial while swapping lenses, and far too many of the shots were overexposed– hence the black-and-white shots that show up on occasion in the collection.
I also got caught flat-footed when the head judge dismissed a competitor, the only one in her weight class, without performing her mandatories. Sure, I understand that she’d automatically *won* her class and from that aspect there wasn’t much point to keeping her out there, but I’d been shooting all the on-stage competitors equally during the free-posing, which means she only got a couple of shots.
If I’d been paying attention (having been bitten by this before) I’d’ve shot only her during the free-posing and the other competitors during the mandatories. It’s the greater shame because she’s made terrific progress since the last time I saw her, at the 2008 Gainesville.
Either way they were rookie errors that come from letting too much time go between shows. I’ll have to make a checklist for next year, I suppose.
_Update, 2009 Dec 03:_ Last of the show shots are up. Enjoy.
The site overall is still in a state of upheaval (like everything else these days) but with luck I’ll get the final few contests ported over to Coppermine soon, which will allow me to remove the standalone “Contest Photos” page.
Shots from the 2009 Greater Gainesville prejudging are up on the site.
As last year, promoter Brian Elliot put on a wonderful show, with special attention paid to the lighting and presentation.
Shots from the finals should be up in a couple of days. I’m just back from a quick trip to Cincinnati and, while I enjoyed it thoroughly, I’m *exhausted*. One more good night of sleep should help…
Last shots from the 2009 Florida Championships went up tonight– er, this morning.
Next up: the 2009 Greater Gainesville. Shouldn’t take *nearly* as long, a much smaller show but the shots turned out much better as well.
So they’re putting yet *another* CVS across from yet *another* Walgreens, this time tearing down existing businesses to do so.
My impassioned question is, why? There are duplicates of both stores within two miles in three directions. Is there some sort of Hatfield/McCoy drama playing out behind the curtain? Or some sort of nutcase mutual assumption that their opposite number knows all the best fishin’ holes?
I’m frankly so fed up with the Tasmanian Devil-style destruction that these two have caused that I’m boycotting both.