I stumbled upon this series of neat photography tricks. I don’t usually share this kind of stuff but I found this to be bang on. (The sales pitch is a bit cheesy but the tips are super worth it). I wish I founds this years ago.

Anyhoo, I’ll be trying a few in the next little while – Check back for updates.

You can see some more of the tricks here

]]> http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/cool-photography-tricks/feed/ 0 http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/oxygen-june-2012-tear-sheets/ http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/oxygen-june-2012-tear-sheets/#comments Sat, 12 May 2012 20:40:11 +0000 paulbuceta http://www.paulbuceta.com/?p=5247 Tear sheets from Oxygen’s June 2012 Issue.

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Regretfully, I think that’s slowly going to change.

The Past

Years ago, supplements were only items like vitamin C and the like. There were only a few token supplement companies to speak of.

Enter MuscleTech.

They began selling supplements aimed to help body builders see the results they were after – Namely bigger, faster, stronger. And holy shit, did they ever sell a lot of product!

Their success allowed them to broaden their products to a more mainstream market.

The company grew at an astronomical pace. Tens of millions of dollars were being made in very little time.

This influx of capital was great news for the fitness industry. Why, because like many new, larger than life corporations, turning over more profit than they knew what to do with, they spent like gangbusters.

Where did they spend???

Just name it…

• MuscleTech would buy advertising in all the fitness magazines.  Millions of dollars worth. This trickled down to many new magazines starting up, (There was no Oxygen Magazine before MuscleTech) as well as bigger names being able to explore new territories with the extra revenues. The credibility these magazines would create for the fitness industry is to date, unmeasurable. Models who would never consider fitness modelling started taking note. This resulted in fitness competitions seeing a meteoric rise in participants. The trickle down of revenues from all of this is too long to list here.
• Muscletech would grant lucrative sponsorships to many (almost all) of the top professional body builders.
• Muscletech would donate huge amounts of award money for the winners of fitness competitions everywhere.
• Muscletech would have huge booths at fitness expos.

All this cost money. A lot of money.

The tens of millions of dollars Muscletech put back into the fitness industry really helped make it happen. It’s my opinion MuscleTech is directly responsible for the growth we have all come to enjoy and the credibility the market has managed to achieve.

I feel a personal obligation to thank MuscleTech for the path they’ve paved for us.

Here and Now.

So here comes the bad times.

When you have a company that is hugely successful, competition is soon to follow. Where MuscleTech once had a HUGE hold of the market, the arrival of new, fresh start ups, nipping at their heels have certainly cost them a large piece of the pie. Unfortunately for the industry, this competition is not advertising as much, not spending as much, and the result is felt by all of us.

A reformulation of one of MuscleTech’s biggest selling products dramatically hit them in the pocket books.

An economy that is anything but promising certainly hasn’t helped.

The slumping US dollar (MuscleTech is a Canadian company) must certainly have played a huge part.

So Why Should We Care?

A couple of reasons I can think of off the top of my head;

• Less advertising = less magazines. Less magazines, = less places for advertising. Less places for advertising = less product being sold which in turn, means even MORE ‘ less advertising’. It’s a vicious circle.
• Magazines have added a huge amount of credibility to the industry. How many competitions were being held 5 years ago? Not that many is the answer. Now, there’s a show all the time. New organizations are formed everywhere. But guess what will happen with the demise of magazines??? Yup, the credibility will go with it. Without magazines to champion us, we all suffer.
• Sponsorships for athletes are already a thing of the past. Now sponsorships are becoming just titles with little or no pay.
• Getting into fitness modelling will be something to do just for fun. There will be no more work.

This is merely an observation. I’m sure I’ve missed quite a bit. I would love to hear your thoughts. Let’s start a forum on this.

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Thank you so much.

We recently gave our website SESSIONSmagazine.com a facelift. If you haven’t seen it lately, check it out. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Out latest issue SESSIONS Vol. 6 has been released.

One of the features I’m quite proud of, (that other magazines don’t really offer) is the opportunity for models to submit self-portraits. In todays society where everyone has either a digital camera or simply the camera on their mobile devices, images are being captured in numbers history could never predict. With that being the case, we find ourselves in the amazing position to accept some pretty incredible images that would otherwise not have received the recognition they deserve. I’m personally hopeful to see this trend increase and encourage all of you that may have taken, or are considering taking cool, sexy, or artistic shots of yourselves to submit them.

This issue has a wonderful self-portrait series taken by Sarah Scotford. She was inspired by some of the images she had seen other models take and opted to try her hand at it. The end result is a sexy, voyeuristic approach that leaves the viewer wanting more of her brazen sexuality. You can see some of it here.

Here are a list of just some of the features in this issue;

“Where the Sidewalks End’ photos Angela Marklew. A true expression of beautifully captured black and whites.

“Fallen Bird” photos Joanna Karlsson. An experiment in colour and black and white with duplicate impressions.

“Nagel Vision” photography by Mike Nguyen. Inspired by the popular 80′s pop culture art of Patrick Nagel, Nguyen aptly takes us on a journey back to the 80′s with a very current style.

“Ode to the Stocking” article Billy Archos. Archos, tells a beautifully painful, yet romantic Ode to love… and stockings.

“Once Upon A Time” photography by Iness Rychuk. Imagine the Black Forest with deer, wind-up ballerinas, peacocks, and witchcraft, and you’re only scratching the surface of the visual delights Rychuk delivers.

“Misfits” photography by Mike Nguyen. Bikes, fashion, and the American way as glorified in the 1969 cult classic Easy Rider. Nguyen once again delivers with some wonderfully captured moments.

“Self Portraits” photos and model – Sarah Scotford. Sarah puts on a show of sex appeal with a voyeuristic appeal.

Help celebrate the art and beauty. Experience your copy today.

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