Special thanks to Pouyan Fard for doing such an amazing job.

If you like it, feel free to share it on Facebook.

Let’s begin by breaking down the fundamentals of each business. Both fitness competitions and publishers (magazines) are exactly that -businesses.  They exist to earn profit.  I am, at present, unaware of any fitness magazine or competition which is non-profit.

Having said that, fitness competitions spend money on venue rentals, advertisement and administration.  They make money by selling tickets to the shows, charging athletes registration fees and individual category fees and collecting revenues from advertisers and sponsors.  The basic rule of a successful business is to spend as little as possible and make as much as possible.  For some reason, however, people expect these organizations to perform as though they were non-profit.

The publishing industry – simply put - takes pieces of paper, puts words and pictures on them and sells as many as possible.  Not to sound belittling, but it’s essentially that simple.  Unfortunately, people enter competitions expecting their hard work and their achievements at events to earn them a place on one of these pieces of paper.  Nowhere is it written, that a magazine is about rewarding the hard work of the athlete.  The magazine is not obligated to feature those that worked hardest, had the best physiques, and placed the highest.  It would be nice to live in that world,but we regretfully don’t.

The resulting confusion is understandable.  In regards to ‘male’ athletes, all the bodybuilding magazines want the biggest, the most popular and the best competitors in their pages.  Why?  Because it sells more magazines.  It is, however, quite different in the world of female competitors. Female fitness magazines sell to a different market.  Their audience (the majority of it, anyway) is not aware of the best physiques or the best competitors.  They are mostly people wanting to exercise, get into shape and learn a bit about fitness and diet.  With that being the case, the competitors or models that land the covers aren’t by definition the best competitors, or even have the best physiques.  The person that gets the cover is the one that will sell the most, or generate the greatest possible revenue.

Now, that said, fitness competitions do have a lot of good physiques in one place at one time.  So it makes sense that these shows would get coverage from magazines.  It makes sense, but, the competitions often take credit for the fact that their competitors are featured in magazines.  Its great publicity for the shows, but they are not the main reason athletes get featured in magazines.

While there certainly are relationships between fitness organizations and publishers, money always talks.  When it comes down to it, the magazine will always give the cover to the athlete they feel will earn them the most money – independent of the organization they may be affiliated with.

With all this said and done, I’m not advising anyone NOT to compete, rather laying out a clear perspective on the industry overall.

To be clear, I’m not anti-competitions or anti-magazines, (I attend them every so often and I shoot for various magazines). If I had to give myself a classification, I would consider myself pro-athlete.

So why the long ramble on the industry?

During my years shooting for both the competitions and the magazines, I’ve heard many models say they entered competitions for the purpose of getting into magazines. This is an ineffective way to achieve that goal with a lot of variables getting in one’s way of getting seen or even noticed.

Fitness modeling, too, is a business.  It makes little sense to take the riskier path, which costs more, requires more effort and may offer insignificant results.  So what is the best path to take?  If the goal is to be a fitness model, reaching out to the various magazines is a good place to start.  Perhaps the editor will see your face and book you for a shoot immediately.  However, because of the thousands of emails they already receive, you again, will end up potentially being overlooked.  I feel one of the best ways to invest your money, is to reach out to those who can make introductions, can ensure you will get seen, who will get you considered — the photographers.

But don’t make the mistake of going to just any photographer, as the average photographer simply submits as one of the thousands of emails the magazines receive. Reach out to the photographers who are connected to the magazines; who are in every issue, shoot the covers and have personal relationships with the magazines.  We are the ones that can call the right people and say, “I think this girl would make an excellent cover model”. While we don’t have authority over who gets chosen, we do, however, get heard and often listened to.  On a personal note, I have made numerous recommendations which have directly resulted in models being published inside the magazine and on the cover — even models that have never competed!  I have pulled models aside at expos and introduced them to editors, ultimately leading to them being published.

Who to call.

At the time of writing this, there are only two contracted fitness photographers by magazines that I am aware of:  Myself, in Canada; with MuscleMag and Oxygen, and Per Bernal, in Los Angeles; with Muscular Development and Fitness RX.  Other notable fitness photographers include:  Staff photographer Pavel Ythjall in Los Angeles with Muscle and Fitness and FLEX, Stuart Volland, Robert Reif, Cory Sorensen, Kevin Horton, Alex Ardenti……and there are others.  You’ll have to do your homework.  Look at their portfolios, look at the magazines they have been published in and check the photo credits inside the magazines to see who shot what.  That will give you a good indication.

To save you time, here’s a link to a bunch of my tear sheets.

A heads up.

We’re not cheap.  Because there are very few of us, we are in demand.  Still, factor in how much you’re prepare to spend on a competition including all the training and meals, flights and accommodations, food, registrations, tanning, outfits, make up,  etc etc etc…, and weigh that against ‘greatly improved odds’, ‘the best pictures of your life’ and a direct relationship with the magazine of your choice.  I think you’ll agree, for the same expense, it’s a much better investment.

If you’re in the industry and feel this is a useful insight, please don’t hesitate to share it on Facebook (Share Button on Left).

Thanks for the support!

This is unlike my Caribbean parties where it’s exclusive and we all fly down together.  Here, all are welcome!  That being said, you’ll need to find your own flights and accommodations, but don’t wait too long as prices rise closer to the dates.

You’ll be needing wristbands to attend these parties. They’re cheaper now and going up in price closer to the dates.

*****

Also, to make things a little more interesting, I’ll be giving away 2 female All Access Wristbands every week, for 5 weeks. All you have to do it answer this question; Name 1. Oxygen Cover Model, 1. American Curves Cover Model and 1. Playboy Cover Model I have shot (3 names), to be eligible.

Email me your answer to paulbuceta@hotmail.com

This gets you into the parties and makes you totally cool – Like me. <GRIN>

Party dates – Friday May 18th to Monday, May 21st. 2012. EXODUS will be holding my party.

 CLICK HERE to see all the parties, prices, dates and times.

Official opening party FRIDAY : 1 OAK @ Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV, 89109  http://www.mirage.com/nightlife/1oak.aspx

Feature Pool party SATURDAY: Wet Republic 3799 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV, 89109-4319 http://wetrepublic.com

Feature nightclub event SATURDAY : Pure Nightclub 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109 http://www.purelv.com/pure#

Official Closing Pool Party SUNDAY: Tao Beach 3355 Las Vegas Blvd S  Las Vegas, NV 89109 http://taobeach.com/

Official Closing Party SUNDAY: XS 3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South  Las Vegas, NV 89109-1967 http://xslasvegas.com/flash2/#/home/

*****

Tell your friends by sharing it on Facebook and Tweeting the shit out of it. We all share responsibility in making this the best party ever!

]]> http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/oxygen-tear-sheets-march-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/apocalypse-for-sessions-magazine/ http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/apocalypse-for-sessions-magazine/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:21:56 +0000 paulbuceta http://www.paulbuceta.com/?p=4870 Here is the final cut of Apocalypse. It’s a video we shot around a photo set in the Caribbean.

You can see the trailer for this here ::: And some of the images here.

CREDITS:

SESSIONS Magazine presents Apocalypse
A Film by Pouyan Fard
Produced by Paul Buceta
Featuring: Nicola Smith, Jillian Kelly, Alayna Kellett
Make up and hair by Lori Fabrizio, Valeria Nova, Sarah Scotford
Swimwear provided by Dal Mare
Music by Piablo

Special thanks to;
Spot 6 Management
Kim Gunther
Michael AJ Guilfoyle
Jesse Skelton
Kevin Packer
Janine Holmes

If you like it, please share it on Facebook and Tweet it to your friends.

Convenient little buttons provided below. <GRIN>

Meet Anthony, our model for today.

Below is Lori following step L – Having it checked by the man himself.

But seriously, Share it on Facebook and Tweet it. It’s for a good cause.

Friday May 18th to Monday, May 21st. 2012.

Get your wristbands early, (as they go up in price closer to the event). Save money and get into the parties that are guaranteed to be packed!

CLICK HERE to order yours.

Will YOU be coming this year?

If you’re looking for a reason to go to Vegas, this is it.

Here’s some footage from one of our pool parties at Wet Republic last year. Special thanks to Pat Ness for wearing the beaver outfit and WWE Divas Maryse Ouellet and Rosa Mendez for joining us.

Looking forward to partying with Pat Ness AND Maryse again this year!

Don’t miss out, tell your friends – Share it on Facebook and Tweet the shit out of it!

See you there .

]]> http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/paul-buceta-vegas-pool-party/feed/ 1 http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/shit-fitness-models-say/ http://www.paulbuceta.com/blogs/shit-fitness-models-say/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:35:04 +0000 paulbuceta http://www.paulbuceta.com/?p=4822 I wish I could take all the credit for this but I can’t. Lori Fabrizio and Valeria Nova came up with the idea after the latest trends in the, ‘Shit People Say’ genre of entertainment. Sarah Scotford and Rita Catolino happily joined  in. They were going to do it themselves, but I agreed to step up and shoot the video. At the time I agreed, I was under the impression someone else was going to edit it!

Seven hours later!!!! Here I am uploading the video I edited.

We have soooo many outtakes from this, we can almost do a part two.

Here’s another quickie re Jamie Eason.

We can’t believe all the incredibly positive feedback we’ve been receiving from everyone. The video has been shared by hundreds of people and posted, quite generously, on many fitness sites.

The comment below made me laugh out loud.

But don’t worry, I plan to stick around a little longer.

AAAAAAAANNNNNNNYYYYYYWHOOOOOO…

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your incredible support!

If you like the video, share it on Facebook and Twitter.