Photo-Report: J.M. Manion – www.jmmanion.com
As we showcased the 2012 NPC Junior National Championships NPC News photo shoot on Sunday with me, J.M. Manion, we are moving on to the 2012 NPC Team Universe Bodybuilding, Figure, Bikini and Physique Championships and NPC National Fitness Championships. Held at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe in Teaneck, N.J.
Because the surrounding area outside the hotel was under construction, the area I used the previous year was unavailable. It actually made a great looking cover. This year I was stymied and decided to rent out a decent size conference room and set up an indoor studio with a large black background. That worked for some of the individual and group photos but it still left me without an idea for the cover. There is an adjacent office building that has a security guard posted so we could not take photos there, but when he must have been making his Sunday rounds I snuck in a few as you’ll see with the Bikini competitors. In regard to the cover shoot itself, unfortunately that might have to be discarded because one of the athlete’s in that shoot needs to be removed since the tested positive in the Team Universe drug testing policy. If there is a way to edit them out then I will give it the old college try.
The major factor that works against me when I do these photo shoots is time available. At this point I have about a 4-5 hour window to coordinate and photograph 20-25 competitors depending on the contest.
As you can imagine there are several hundred photographs taken that eventually get whittled down to approximately 15-20 that will be printed in the NPC News. So what happens with the photographs I don’t use? Until now, nothing. They sit on either my server or get stored on an external hard drive.
I now have the opportunity for everybody to see all the photographs taken. Unlike other photographers who would probably edit their selections, I am presenting to all of you all the photographs taken after this year’s 2012 NPC Team Universe Bodybuilding, Figure, Bikini and Physique Championships and NPC National Fitness Championships. You’ll see that I use variations in exposure and composition to give myself enough variety for the NPC News magazine staff to select what they like. You’ll notice on the horizontal photos that there seems to be a lot of extra space on the outside of the photographs and you can see the actual conference room. I learned a long time ago back in the pre-digital film days, that there has to be enough room given to the Art Director so they can crop the photograph to look the best on a magazine page. So what you are about to see are totally unedited photographs. There have been no exposure compensations, no touch-up’s, no anything. This is a real and raw as you can get.
I hope you enjoy this somewhat ‘behind the scenes’ look at what goes into these photo shoots.
Go here to see all of the photos from the Team Universe & Fitness Nationals Champions Photo Shoot!
