As an environmental portrait photographer I think it is important to be flexible. Since I have already posted a  female fitness portrait I think it is time that I post some male fitness portraits.

My inspiration for this photoshoot came straight from the gym.  The model wasn’t a model at all, but a buddy I knew from the gym, Mike Starchok.  Mike, not only had not done any modeling in the past, but really didn’t have much experience with portraiture.  It was my job to lead the photoshoot, instead of just facilitate it like I would when working with someone with more experience. The idea was to experiment with some different ideas to see if we could bring out his personality in the photos with environmental portraits.

We went to a park in Longmont.  On most days it has beautiful views of the Longs Peak, and the Rocky Mountains.  However, during our photoshoot it was really overcast and the top half of the mountains weren’t really visible.  Even though we didn’t get the view of the mountains I had hoped, there were some cool clouds to give the sky some character.

In the first shot we tried to get some movement with Mike jumping towards a basketball hoop.  He is building his name as a strength and speed coach, so I thought putting action in the photos would be very becoming of him.

The second photo I wanted something where he was the sole focus of the photo and it would show his intensity.  I put him in a pushup position and really tried to make his face the center of the photograph.  I think it really shows off his intensity and ferocity!

It doesn’t take a professional model to make great photographs.  Anyone is capable of modeling being the focus of great photographs.