lucas-photo.com

Shots from the 2008 Southeastern USA are up on the site. Hey, only 8 days out this time. ;)

The lighting at this show was excellent, and I think the shots reflect that.

I had taken the “new” motorcycle (it’s a 1995 BMW R100 airhead that I absolutely love) down for its first real road trip and so was a little jounced around by the time I arrived.

But the show went well, and I managed to take care of all my other chores while I was down there too– even managed to take in most of the Gators giving LSU all they could handle, and on a 42 inch plasma screen too. All in all, a good trip.

Next up: the first annual Greater Gainesville, and can it be possible that the lighting here was even better than the Southeastern? All this and my first take on Bibble Pro. Stay tuned.

Shots from the 2008 Lakeland contest are up on the site.

Not my best work, I think I must have been distracted by the architecture again.

Hi, sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been working behind the scenes to move the site to a new host. I *think* I’ve found and fixed all the bugs caused by the change– well, no that’s not true. I know there are more out there.

I wasn’t unhappy with the old host, I just got a way better deal at the new one. So what’s new? Well, look and feel of the blog, obviously, plus significant updates in the infrastructure. And the new host is faster.

I’ll also be trying to fix some page anomolies I noted during the rebuild testing… nothing that’s a host issue, just things I haven’t gotten updated yet.

Shoot me a note if you see anything that looks hinky or off… but give it a day or two, as there will be delays with the email service until the DNS cache is flushed worldwide.

After my recent rambling rant on striving for quality shots, how do I explain the Ancient City results?

Well it’s easy: the venue fouled up the schedule and double-booked the auditorium (the place that has the good lighting). Normally they’ve been pretty good about such things, but this time we ended up in the gym. The promoter was hopping mad, and I don’t blame him a bit.

So here from the “Salvage What You Can” bin are the photos. On the plus side, the venue is still amazing from the outside– I did a great quick shoot outside with competitor Adam Frez, look for a minishoot update very soon.

Shots from the 2008 Tampa Bay Classic are being posted to the site.

Originally this show wasn’t on the list. It’s a traditionally large show, and one which can run long, plus it’s not far from Ian so it’s practically guaranteed that the show will have photo coverage.

And yet some positive things about the show kept nagging me. I recalled the high-powered lighting, and the gorgeous blue background, and the seating that allows for decent shooting angles if you arrive early (and one huckster actually tried to talk me out of my seat this year, but that’s a story for another time).

I also recalled that the promoter strongly prefers for the bodybuilders to do at least a shortened version of their routine at the prejudging. That makes life a very great deal easier for me, as I’m certain to see each competitor at least twice: anyone I miss during their routine, I can pick up in the comparisons.

About halfway down, somewhere near where the Florida Turnpike meets I-75, I had an epiphany.

It was obvious in retrospect. Good epiphanies usually are.

I had been trying to choose which shows to attend to based on parameters like driving distance and calendar dates– aspects that were actually pretty irrelevant to the quality of the shots I get.

I realized that, if I’m going to lever my happy carcass out of a comfy bed at zero-dark-thirty in the morning (or fork over a day’s wages to a legalized pirate trolloping hotel rooms if I want to stage locally the night before), drive one to three hours to get to the show, unload another wad of cash for gas, parking, meals, admission, and miscellaneous, drive one to three hours to get back home, then spend *another* four hours of my life editing and posting the photos…

… if I’m going to go through all that, then, quite simply, I want to go to shows where I can take good photos.

Period.

It doesn’t make sense to do this any other way.

I’m happy that I went to the Tampa show this year. I hope you’ll enjoy the shots too.

New photos of fitness competitor Toni A. are up on her page.

I loved the light in this shoot, and Toni was fun as always.

More of her soon…

Shots from the 2008 Gateway Classic in Lake City, Florida are up on the site.

The color consistency is to cry for, which at least accurately represents the lighting at various points on the stage.

Judging, like photography, is a visual art, and the impact that good, even lighting has on the equitable presentation of competitors cannot be overemphasized.

(Well, actually, it can. You could say something like, “If one guy’s in shadow and the other guy’s in good light, plague and pestilence will reign upon the land!” and you’d be completely out of the ballpark and no one would invite you to parties any more. But good and balanced lighting is still *very* important.)

Apropos nothing, if the price of gas stays the way it is, I’m going to have to cut some of the shows from the plan this year.