Photo Finish - Susanna Backman

It was somewhat last minute, but Melissa and I managed to make it up to the NPC LAs to shoot and attend the competition, which she won the overall title in last year. It's only right that the champ is there to pass the crown on to this year's winner, which turned out to be Arizona's Valerie Carlino.

The next morning, after not much sleep, it was time to pound a Starbucks Americano and get to work, which in this case was shooting with Swedish figure competitor Susanna Backman. She had expressed her desire to shoot outdoors, specifically at the beach, and since we were staying only 10 minutes from the sandy seashore, I felt it was my duty to oblige. The weather was a little rough with cloudy skies and a brisk breeze, but Susanna toughed it out and allowed her experience in past shoots to hit some great poses.

Next, we stopped at another location to shoot in something other than a bikini — shocker, I know — that being the dress in the photo you see above. It was a very flowing dress, so it took a bit to figure out how to tighten and wrap it in the right places to showcase Susanna's athletic silhouette, but I was pretty happy with the results from this portion of the shoot. Actually, I was pretty happy with most of the images we captured that day. Susanna was a great model to work with and Melissa did a fantastic job with the makeup and assisting.

Let me expound on that subject for a hot second, if I may. For photoshoots this season I've teamed up with NPC figure competitor, fitness model, personal trainer, nutritionist — and pretty much my BFF — Melissa Deal. Many of you that have shot with me in the past know that I've always been a one-man band, and at times, it could get overwhelming. So this year, I decided to make some changes in the way I work, and bring on someone who I work with. Not only is Melissa an enormous asset due to her make up artist skills, but just having an experienced model at the shoot to coach other girls is huge. We've always made a great team, which is why we are officially now known as Team FitSights.

Well, I guess it's not official until I get us some new business cards printed up.. but hey, it's pretty official nevertheless.

Photo Finish - Jeanne Nimmer

At the Cals, we had a shoot set up with Jeanne Nimmer, an NPC figure competitor from the Phoenix area. Initially, we had hoped to shoot at the beach, but the cloudy skies that taunted us with precipitation forced our hand, making the grounds of the host hotel the photo location.

I've shot at the hotel before, so I'm pretty familiar with all the nooks, crannies and backdrops available, so I always try to take advantage of that and make the photos look like they were in a studio or a different locale. We took a good amount of photos in a variety of outfits and locations, and Jeanne performed beautifully as a model. Her physique had a lot of detail that picked up light and shadows, which always makes for more intriguing images.

All in all, a great shoot, and I look forward to working with Jeanne again in the future.

Photo Finish - Sarah Turse

Sarah Turse is a first-time figure competitor and model from San Diego that we shot just before the NPC Orange County. Sarah used my talented partner Melissa Deal to prepare for the competition, and one of the perks of using Melissa and A Deal 4 Fitness for prep is that you also get a shoot with FitSights Photography as an added bonus. What a Deal, eh?

Yes, pun intended. Sorry.

We shot at the coves in La Jolla on a pretty picturesque day, although the majority of the days are like that in San Diego. Melissa did a great job with the makeup and styling for the shoot, and Sarah picked up the instruction and posing with no problems at all. Sure, she was a little nervous at first, but if anyone can shake off a case of the nerves and get down to business it's Sarah — she specializes in bomb disarming in the US Navy.

And if you're looking for a cheesy joke about Sarah being "the bomb", well, normally you've come to the right place. But today I'm going to mix it up and actually not deliver it. Shocking, I know.

Photo Finish - Christine Aguilar

Recently, I had to make my way over to the Valley of the Sun for a job outside of Phoenix, so I decided to get in touch with NPC figure competitor Christine Aguilar to set up a shoot. Last year, she made the trek to San Diego to shoot with me, so I figured I should return the favor and shoot on her home turf.

Unfortunately, my lighting equipment was damaged while I was out on my jobsite, so I had to revert to something I hadn't done in awhile — use that big ol' glowing ball of plasma in the sky to be the main source of light for my photos. Yep, good old sunlight.

Christine helped pinpoint a great location and we started capturing some really nice photos. Sure, we got kicked out of one of the locations by a park ranger, but a shoot with Christine is never complete without some sort of incident with the authorities.

She's definitely a favorite model to work with, just because we're able to vibe back and forth pretty easily. And the fact that she's a great poser with a lot of energy ain't too bad either.

Another friend, another site

As you can tell, things have been slow on the FitSights front lately. The site will soon go through a bit of a transformation, focusing alot more on photography and, well, not much more. But that's neither here nor there, because this post is about another site..

My good friend Melissa Deal recently launched her site, and its pretty cool if I do say so myself. She was the one who organized and put the site together, which is pretty impressive. Beauty *and* brains? C'mon now, that's not fair to all the other girls out there.

So check it out, and if you feel like throwing down 12 bones, you can join her members section -- which I'm told has some unique elements in it (like members get to vote on photoshoot and video clip ideas).

Woo! Have fun.

Photo Finish - Crystal Lowrey

This evening I shot with NPC San Diego overall winner and NPC LA short class winner, Crystal Lowrey. Crystal is a couple days out from the USAs, where she'll be stepping on a national stage for the first time. She's built up a good amount of momentum in Southern California, blowing away the competition in her class, so it will be interesting to see how she stacks up against a higher caliber of competitor in Las Vegas.

We shot at a somewhat secret spot I know of nearby, and although it was a little chilly and cloudy, I told Crystal to enjoy it while she could because the forecasts for Vegas this weekend is — no joke — 107 degrees with thunderstorms.

Which brings me to a personal conundrum. I have about 20 people that want to shoot with me during the USAs, but in those pore-melting conditions, there are really only two times I can shoot — sunrise and sunset. Anything else would be unbearable, for myself and the competitor. So it's established that my window to shoot is small, then let me also add that the only real day competitors can shoot is Sunday. So that means I have two 2-hour slots available for 20 people.

wtf..

Also, for the first time ever, I'm actually more looking forward to going on the trip to support a friend thats vying for a pro card, not really just to shoot. However, I almost feel like I'm obligated to drag all my equipment with me to shoot, just because I am who I am and I do what I do. And now I have to pick a handful of girls to shoot with, alienating all the others in the process because they "weren't good enough".

So, that being said, I still have no idea what I'm doing for the USAs. I'm gonna figure it out tomorrow though, because time is running out. I just hate saying "no" to people, and I know I'm going to have to do that to ALOT of folks for this competition. Maybe I'll just pick names out of a hat or something, I dunno. Ah well, you've gotta be the bad guy every once in awhile..

Photo Finish - Melissa Deal

Fresh off her overall figure win at the 2007 NPC LA competition last night, I thought it was only appropriate to post a photo of Melissa Deal, someone you've seen photos of before here on The Eye, but maybe not a photo like this.

This was taken on Thursday, just a couple days out from the show in Los Angeles.

Hopefully Melissa's success at the LAs is foreshadowing to even bigger things at the USAs. All I know is that I'm wearing my lucky shoes and jacket to the USAs to do my part. And yes, I know it'll probably be 120 degrees in Vegas, so I'll be the one collapsed outside the venue due to heat stroke, possibly twitching and foaming from the mouth.

Be sure to say hi.