Hardest I've worked on a shoot in my life

This week I have continued my busy period with a shoot for Fitness First down in Christchurch, Dorset. It is the second time in a couple of months that I have worked for this client, but this time was different to no other. The shoot is for the walls in the fitness centers and if you have ever been into gyms, they have pictures of people doing the activities on the walls. These range from various exercises with weights, balance boards, press ups, running, jumping etc. It meant that for 4 hours I would be working up a sweat! (which is what the client wanted).

Normally I have no problem with the exercises and it wouldn't trouble me one bit. However, with my knee still no where near recovered, this was going to be a very tricky shoot for me. Now of course I didn't have to do the job and could have turned it down for not being in the right fitness for it, but works work and I need all that I can get my hands on. Time to take some pain killers and to just get on with it, whilst being slightly careful of course, that was the attitude I took.

Some of the exercises were pretty tough to do and I certainly got my sweat on throughout. It turned out to be a great workout and that's how I treated it, "getting paid to work out" (life can't be too bad). ha. Some of the shots were re-enacting scenarios such as personal trainers and clients and you had to get into the mind set of either straining to do the exercises (so facially it looks like your working hard) and when your a personal trainer acting like that is your job. A little bit of still camera acting involved, like with a lot of shoots and of course the better you are, the more natural the pictures come out as.

Everything went great and the good thing about working with people you have worked with previously is that the atmosphere is a lot more comfortable. It relaxes everyone on the shoot, which creates a good working atmosphere on set. The creative company, CHS, are in charge of providing the studio, the photographer and ensuring the models have the right itinerary. It's nice to get in with a company like this, as they are often asked to book models for companies as well, or at least have an influence for the clients that book their jobs through them. To prove this fact, this is the 3rd time in less than 2 months I have worked with this company.

Pictures from this shoot will also come at a later date. This is a common problem with all the shoots that I undertake, that the pictures take so long to come through and are often very difficult to get hold of too.



This is one still shot I got back from the Malibu Ident which I shot back in the summer. If you have not seen it, you are just missing me answering a phone and shouting, "Taxi's here" ha ha, tough job hey ;-). Unlike the Fitness First job where I seriously was exhausted and aching for a few days after that shoot, a complete first for me ha.