My wife took me to the fabric outlet. It was huge! Like I was living in a material world.
(Our original plan was to get a cover for the rock garden, but it wasn’t satin stone.)
Shots from the 2016 Monsta Classic, held waaaaay back on April 23, are finally up on the LP site.
I was coming down with some internal crud or other and the early shots reflect that; I apologize.
Moving slowly all morning, I got there far later than planned, and had little chance to pick a good spot or get everything set up before the show started.
Throw in the dark spot on the left side of the stage that required extra love and attention all morning, and I think I missed as many shots as I got in the first two classes.
(For what it’s worth, it was almost three weeks before I got over whatever that crud was.)
Arno was shooting the official shots, you can purchase them from his site.
I’ve been doing fewer shows each year; gas is still expensive, and the shows themselves are charging more.
Expenses aside, though, the main reason I’m shooting less is simply that I don’t have nearly the available time I used to have to dedicate to this.
That said, here’s the list of shows I’m planning to shoot the remainder this year:
- Central District, Lakeland, June 11 (Pre)
- Ancient City, St. Augustine, July 16 (Pre)
- Gainesville Classic, July 30 (Pre, finals if needed)
- There are three shows on August 27. Though it’s a bit far, I can cover either Immokalee or Port St Lucie if needed.
- Lakeland, Sept 3 (Pre)
- Ocala Cup Classic, Oct 22 (Pre, finals if needed. Hopefully we can avoid the pumpkin curtain this time.)
- All South, St Augustine, Nov 5 (Pre)
Of course if anyone needs me for a show, just let me know. The most important thing to me is that each show gets at least some coverage, and I’ll work with anyone to ensure that happens.
I heard a rumor that people found my soup to be somewhat bland, but I put no stock in it.
First show of the year done: Shots from the 2016 Galaxy are up on the site.
Some short notes:
– This was a busy weekend for contests; there were three NPC shows and at least two others. I’m hoping that all the shows had good photo coverage; if not we photographers probably should try to get more organized.
– Still quite a few competitors who insist on performing a short choreography routine before they take each pose, but I guess there’s no getting rid of it.
– This is the first show I’ve attended with the new Men’s Classic Physique class. Overall, I like it.
Shots came out reasonably well; shot tethered again– still learning the power of darktable but getting a little better at it each time. I hope. ;)
Enjoy the shots.
The cloud is 100% safe,
and it will be until the exact moment
that it isn’t.
A wise programmer named Aesop
once described an algorithm
for egg-to-basket ratio optimization.
Shots from the 2015 Ocala Cup Classic are up on the site.
Ocala was the site of the last show I competed in, so I was very pleased that Sandy Rivera chose to bring bodybuilding back to this under-represented area of the state.
Despite being an inaugural show, things ran very smoothly, everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation, and as a bonus a nice gift was made to the Special Olympics.
The venue did present some challenges, however. When I first saw the backdrop I was intrigued to see how the background color would work (as a nice change from the customary neutron-star black).
By the end of the evening, though, I had sworn off all things orange, including cheddar cheese, pumpkin pie, sunsets, and Tang.
The venue lighting also needs some attention before next year. Lighting is probably the single most overlooked aspect of any show. For most dramatic productions, having bright oases on the stage is an acceptable, even desirable, condition; but for a competition prejudging it’s vital to have consistent, bright light across the width of the stage. You can see what I’m talking about in some of the prejudging shots.
I also had an issue with a slightly blurry portion of the visual field that I haven’t been able to track down yet. That area of Ocala is supposed to be haunted, so that’s one possibility, but it’s more likely that my UV filter had some fog on it, though I wasn’t able to locate it then and I can’t replicate it now. I’ve tossed that filter in any case, just to be sure.
Normally the shots don’t take nearly this long to bring up on the site, of course; the delay was partly due to not wanting to conflict with sales of the full-size shots (being handled by Sandy), partly because I normally only shoot the prejudging (between the morning and evening shows I took over 3,400 shots (!)), partly because the shots needed more post-processing than usual, and partly because it’s a very busy time right now– the new job’s a hassle and the kids have the flu, you get the idea.
After the morning show I also did a quick shoot with Jennifer Stilson. She was a real trooper despite being almost ready to pass out from the hunger and stress of competition (I wasn’t in much better shape by then, but that’s beside the point). Her husband was a godsend, handling the reflectors when the off-camera flash started going balky, she looked great, and the location is a hidden gem (Adrienne Smith showed it to me when we shot there), so we were able to turn out a nice batch of attractive and interesting photos.
All in all, Ocala was a lot of work, but it’s what I enjoy. I hope you do as well.
Sandy has added the order link to her site at ocalacupclassic.com.