Tag Archives: Fitness

Say Hello To Sam – Mr Gay UK from Cardiff

By PaulReiffer | Published November 22, 2011

Sam (Samuel) Kneen - Male Fitness Underwear Model and Mr Gay UK Cardiff - Paul Reiffer, Professional London PhotographerThis is Sam Kneen – a current finalist in the overall “Mr Gay UK” competition which has seen its fair share of interesting publicity during the 20 or so years that it’s been around.

Sam (Samuel) Kneen - Male Fitness Underwear Model and Mr Gay UK Cardiff - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer

The first image I uploaded of him onto Facebook prompted quite a few comments, and as a relatively inexperienced model, he’s certainly got a strong enough look to go far in the industry. We actually shot this series after completing a commercial Christmas shoot (ads and promo material) for Lick, one evening last week and just used the clothing he had in his bag, given the number of shots already taken with Lick’s underwear – which you’ll no doubt see out there soon.

Sam (Samuel) Kneen - Male Fitness Underwear Model and Mr Gay UK Cardiff - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer

Sam is hoping to win the final of Mr Gay UK – a competition won by the general public voting for contestants from around the UK – and you can help him out by voting here.

Sam (Samuel) Kneen - Male Fitness Underwear Model and Mr Gay UK Cardiff - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer

You’ll notice that I’ve also been experimenting with using a simpler lighting setup in a lot of these shots. Just one hair light off to the top right (way up in the ceiling) and a single soft-box to the right of my camera. I’m quite enjoying the fact that I get a consistent style across an entire shoot this way, and love the cold feel that I can generate in the images this way.

Sam (Samuel) Kneen - Male Fitness Underwear Model and Mr Gay UK Cardiff - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer

Yes, I love shooting with the ring-flash, but to be fair to Sam, his eyes were already seeing lighting donuts after the Lick shoot, so subjecting him to any more of that just seemed unfair! That said, the images for the adverts are cool – but you’ll have to wait and see how they look for a little while longer as the adverts hit the shelves in December… :-)

Sam (Samuel) Kneen - Male Fitness Underwear Model and Mr Gay UK Cardiff - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer

Want to see more of Sam before then? Well, you’ll have to start voting for him to win the final of Mr Gay UK if you want to see more! In the meantime though, it might be worth checking out his Facebook and Twitter :-)


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Aaron Breckell – Studio Shots of a Male Fitness Model

By PaulReiffer | Published October 17, 2011

Ring flashes have been around for years. They’ve been in and out of fashion more times than checked shirts, but they DO deliver a very specific “look”, which I love, which you can spot a mile off.  I’ve used a Lencarta Safari ring flash on many occasions, but it was time to give a different flash head a go.

Aaron Breckell - Studio Aussiebum Underwear Male Model Ring Flash - Paul Reiffer London Photographer

So, bringing Aaron (a relatively new model from Guildford) into the studio to shoot, we pulled out the Alien Bees ABR800 Ring Flash.  I just love the look that this thing brings to my images. Smooth light, short shadows, rich colours, and the Alien Bees unit covers a considerably larger area than the Lencarta equivalent.

Aaron is looking to move into fitness/commercial modelling, so some body shots as well as the more “edgy”/fashion styled looks like the one above. Shooting with a range of backgrounds, I put the ring flash to work and got a few different shapes out of him to show off both his look/body as well as the very different feel to my images to that which is delivered by traditional lighting such as soft-boxes.

Aaron Breckell - Studio Diesel Underwear Male Model Ring Flash - Paul Reiffer London PhotographerAaron Breckell - Studio Calvin Klein Underwear Male Model Ring Flash - Paul Reiffer London Photographer

Of course, a studio shoot shouldn’t only be delivered with just one lighting setup – and much though I love shooting with the ring flashes, there are some looks that it simply can’t deliver. Here’s a quick “moody” one – more of which will be in my portfolio very soon…

Aaron Breckell - Studio Topless Jeans Male Model - Paul Reiffer London Photographer

Aaron Breckell - Studio Calvin Klein Underwear Male Model Ring Flash - Paul Reiffer London Photographer

So that’s Aaron. And I guess a decent try out of the ABR800 ring flash.

Often used on girls for glamour shots, but I think the ones at the top of this post prove that the “magazine feel” can be delivered just as well with male fitness models too.



Soon to the blog, Anna Smith – an art nude model who popped into the studio a few weeks back.

But next up? Well, it REALLY is about time I uploaded some of this pictures from Thailand in May…!  :-)




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Lick – The latest male underwear shoot. Model – Nathan

By PaulReiffer | Published August 31, 2011

It’s that time again, when Lick underwear‘s new range has arrived and so it’s out with the old and in with the new – starting with a new launch advert in the September edition of Attitude for their new lines:

Lick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Jockstrap Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London Photographer

Last year’s successful campaign in Attitude mag made a lot of use of one model in particular – so it was time for the guys at Lick to find some new models to shoot the new range…

With three models in the studio and the clothing good to go, it was a day full of shooting to get images for catalogues, web as well as the print adverts and press materials.  First up, fresh model Nathan, and the first image we shot of the new jockstraps – a classic underwear pose:

Lick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Jockstrap Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London Photographer

With the “stock look” out of the way, it’s then time to give a few different styles, compositions, poses and treatments a go. Keeping things in the studio, the Lick guys just wanted to get some different shapes going on to show off the new range. The problem is, studio shots can look a bit “samey” – so after shooting on the bed, off to the stairwell we went, to try and catch some slightly different looks for use in advertising:

Lick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Jockstrap Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London PhotographerLick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Jockstrap Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London Photographer

There’s a wall outside the studio which I’m starting to love (too much, arguably, as I have to be careful not to use it) – but for this, it was perfect.  How else can you make someone wearing a pink jockstrap look “industrial”…?  ;-)

Lick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Jockstrap Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London PhotographerLick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Jockstrap Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London Photographer

The second one, above right, is actually the non-cropped version of the final September advertisement for Attitude – and it’s different enough to catch the eye (in my opinion, of course ;-) )

So, that was the new item shot for Nathan.  The other models had their selections of the new range (and I’m still to process those!) but the guys at Lick wanted to try shooting a few “different” shots of last year’s range as well, for their clearance.

Here goes….!

Lick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Boxer Brief Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London PhotographerLick Attitude Magazine Advert Model Nathan Boxer Brief Male Underwear Essex - Paul Reiffer - Professional London Photographer

Personally – I LOVE the retro black and white shot on the bed.  This is one of my favourite images from the day – simply because it’s SO different from any style I’ve used before.  While it’s a departure from the standard underwear shots used by most companies, I think it has some mileage.

What do you think?  (of the photography, and the model, of course :-) )



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Mark and Jemma – Two’s Company, Three’s a Photo Shoot

By PaulReiffer | Published July 18, 2011

Every now and then I get an email from a model asking to shoot a “couples series”. A lot of the time, things just don’t work out – there are way too many things to go wrong last-minute but sometimes (just sometimes) things come together to make it work. Enter: Mark Sharman & Jemma Perry, two London models.

Mark Sharman, Jemma Perry, Models Couples Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

A couple of weeks back, with some spare studio time and some rather last-minute arrangements, Mark and Jemma managed to get into the studio to shoot their series together.  Now, this is actually harder than it sounds.  Chemistry has to be invented; emotion has to be convincing; all “normal social boundaries” go out the window.  So first up, let’s see how they got on in solo shots, starting with Jemma in a lingerie series (and some random pvc stockings!)…

Jemma Perry, Glamour Model Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London PhotographerJemma Perry, Female Glamour Model Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

 

 

 

Jemma Perry, Female Glamour Model Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London PhotographerJemma Perry, Female Glamour Model Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

 

 

 

And of course, not to leave out Mark.  As a fitness model, Mark’s warm-up shots were pretty simple: topless, jeans…

Mark Sharman - Male Fitness Model Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

So, with all those “standard” shots done – some of which I’m really happy with :-) – it was time to get the chemistry sorted and shoot what we were really there for:  a series of photos as a couple.  Now to set the mood, let’s just make sure Jemma can convince us she’s “in control”…

Mark Sharman, Jemma Perry, Models Couples Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

With that established ;-) , it’s then time to stretch their acting abilities and see if we can get some convincing emotions and poses. First, Jemma playing innocent and protected in the studio, followed by a slightly more raunchy shot with natural light in the studio stairwell outside…

Mark Sharman, Jemma Perry, Models Couples Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London PhotographerMark Sharman, Jemma Perry, Models Couples Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

 

 

 

 

 

Did they do a good job?  Well,  given it was the the first time Mark’s worked with another model as a “couple”, I’d say they pulled it off pretty nicely.  Of course, there’s always room for improvement (from myself as well as the models) but the two of them did also give me the opportunity to try shooting with a different style of lighting, as well as trying out a completely new way of post-processing images.  I used that  new treatment on one of the last shots of the day, after they’d been working together for a few hours….

Mark Sharman, Jemma Perry, Models Couples Photoshoot - Paul Reiffer Professional London Photographer

So, convincing enough…?

 

Of course, you’ll find a few more images in my portfolio – check out the guys, girls and groups :-)

 

 

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The New York Sessions – Models in the Empire State

By PaulReiffer | Published May 31, 2011

As part of my “flying visit” to New York, I shot three male models at the Empire Studios – ran by its fantastic owner Romeo, who is also a very accomplished artist.  Working with Chris as our session’s makeup artist, and Ben assisting, we shot from 10am through until 4.  First up – PJ:

PJ - New York Model - Paul Reiffer Professional PhotographerPJ - New York Model - Paul Reiffer Professional PhotographerShooting a mixture of images on the roof as well as the studio – we worked with a variety of setups to add something different to his book.  Born and raised in Ukraine, PJ moved to the US 10 years ago and lived in London for a few years in between. As someone who’s looking to move into fitness modelling, these shots were all about the body (with a little bit of weird styling thrown in ;-) )

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, Paul Osei sat down in Chris’s capable hands to start the make-up process.  Born and raised in Africa, Paul had a real itch to make his mark in the modelling industry. He runs track & field as a sprinter, so I was keen to make use of those “funky” flourescent shoes which Chris co-ordinated with some funky eye-makeup for one key fitness look.

Heading back into the main studio, we also made use of the fantastic light that shone through the huge floor to ceiling windows, so we “cleaned him up” a bit and shot the image below – I’m amazed how much light poured around the room.  Even though it was bright outside, the position I placed Paul into would normally have cast him purely in shadow – but with the bright walls bouncing the sunlight all over the studio, this look really worked.

Paul Osei - Model - New York - Paul Reiffer PhotographerPaul Osei - Model - New York - Paul Reiffer Photographer

 

 

Finally, ChrisJon hit us for the afternoon session. A Filipino, based in Queens, NY. He was fairly new to modelling but apparently has always had an interest.  With a strong book already, he was looking to add some different styles to the “standard” work.  Coming from a very athletic background, he certainly has the body to be a strong fitness model – this was all about getting some more images that would expand his book to prove it.

Again, moving between the roof (which was now in scorching sunshine – to the point where the felt was melting up there!) and the main studio – this time with all of the window coverings removed, we grabbed around 6 different looks – two of which are captured below:

ChrisJon - New York Model - Paul Reiffer PhotographerChrisJon - New York Model - Paul Reiffer Photographer

 

 

 

 

 

My favourite image from the day?  Probably the last shot of ChrisJon against the windows.  I just love how the light wraps around him – this was done with *no* fill flash, no reflectors, no “tricks” – just the pure light falling through those huge windows and I think it really works.

At the end of the day, this was a small selection from the many looks we captured on the day-long shoot, many of which will slowly make their way into my guys portfolio – but for now, hey, at least you got a quick preview ;-)

 

 

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The Chocolate Box

By PaulReiffer | Published May 17, 2011

Back at the end of March, I decided to shoot some personal projects that I’d been considering for some time.  The only problem is, when you shoot a lot in the same studio or same surroundings, you end up with images that can look very similar.  To make sure my own projects didn’t end up looking the same, I wanted to try something : shooting in another studio across town.

Stephen Box, Steve Box, Chocolate Factory Studios - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer Model Portfolios

Enter: The Chocolate Factory Studios – owned by photographer Damien Morley.  Followed by a quick call later to Steve Box; within a day I had a new studio to play with and a trusted model who I knew could give me the shots I wanted :-)

Most of the time, when travelling, I shoot location – so while I’ve used studios all around on a one-off basis, it was fun getting to know a new shooting space from scratch, with the intention of using it at lot more in future.  For starters, one of the walls had a fantastic “loft apartment” feel to it – so the first quick shot was the boots in bed :-)

 

However, this still wasn’t too far from my standard model portfolio work – and I wanted something different.  I wanted to try some more detailed, arty, body-shots – perhaps to form a storyboard or a “triptych” of sorts, featuring different parts of the human body (without going into too much detail!).  Here’s one of those collections:

Stephen Box, Steve Box, Chocolate Factory Studios - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer Model PortfoliosThoughts?  Well, personally I’m pleased with the results.  As a series for my next portfolio, it really works.  Working through a series of other positions – we covered the entire body, generating set after set of body shots that worked in threes – but these were my favourites. Steve seemed pretty happy with them as well ;-)

 

Stephen Box, Steve Box, Chocolate Factory Studios - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer Model Portfolios Stephen Box, Steve Box, Chocolate Factory Studios - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer Model PortfoliosOf course, a large part of Steve’s own portfolio focuses on fitness/physique – so we covered a series of those shots too.  I remember shooting this guy a few years ago – and he’s always had a great look – over time, his expressions and posing have got better and better, to the point where he’s a fantastic model to use when you really do need to guarantee a key body shape or look.  With a model who knows what they’re doing, I can focus on experimenting with lighting and setups, knowing they’re going to deliver the look I need when I click the shutter.

 

Of course – there’s one photo that always gets the “that’s the one” – and every now and then, it’s enough of a shot to make it to the front page of my site.  Here it is – well done Steve ;-)

Stephen Box, Steve Box, Chocolate Factory Studios - Paul Reiffer, Professional London Photographer Model Portfolios

 

Next up, three more shoots to get photoshopped, a heck of a lot of images from Thailand AND two shoots to do in New York in a couple of weeks’ time (in a VERY cool studio which looks out over Manhattan ;-) )

 

 

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