Fitness Photography

Raleigh, North Carolina Fitness Photography

With all the ups and downs of commercial photography, there is one thing I never want to stray away from, and that’s fitness photography. No matter what is going on in your life, fitness should always be an answer. Have a bad day? Go work out. Bad week? Go sweat. You never regret working out, but as they as, you’ll always regret not working out. Sort of comparing apples to oranges, but I also get an immense amount of satisfaction from documenting others working out. Just being a fly on the wall for the sufferfest is almost as good as getting my own sweat.

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San Diego Fitness Photography - Person doing a kettlebell workout with a tattoo that reads "Strive for Greatness" on his back.

Strive for Greatness

A person working out in an empty warehouse gym in San Diego, California. Bear Republic Gym.

Raleigh Fitness and Health Photography

A guy working out with kettlebells at Bear Republic Gym. San Diego Fitness Photography.

Fitness Photography - Raleigh, NC

An athlete with large blisters on his hands after an intense workout. San Diego Fitness Photos.

Health and Fitness Photography - Raleigh, NC

Two girls high five each other after an intense workout in a gritty gym. San Diego Fitness Photography.

Health and Fitness Photography - Raleigh, NC

An athletic girl sits on a medicine ball after an intense workout at a Crossfit gym. San Diego Fitness Photography

Raleigh Fitness Photographer

Health and Fitness Photoshoot - Raleigh, North Carolina

If you’re in the fitness world then chances are you follow brands like Rogue, Nike, 2XU, Rhone, and Reebok because of the guaranteed stream of fitness related content. They are easy follows. I realized a while back that I’m a hard follow. My photography is focused on my interests, which are quite varied. Just look at the blog post previous to this one. It leads off with an older women in a white fur jacket and hat riding her bicycle down a cobblestone street in a postcard European town. So what does that have to do with gritty images of an athletic girl working out? Nothing other than both subjects interest me. Admittedly the woman riding her bike could be classified as a fashion photograph, a subject that bores the hell out of me. I’d classify it more as a culture or travel photo though. The point is, if you’re following someone like me, it’s because you like my photography, not necessarily all of the subject matter. People will always say “you have to specialize”. Why? It certainly make it easier to market yourself that way, but why limit yourself to shooting one subject matter your whole life? I love photography and using it for various purposes like documenting life, not just to create ad campaigns for clients. That’s fun too, but there’s got to be more than that. Stay tuned for the next post on a subject unrelated to fitness that will no doubt preach about the value of personal project, again……

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Advertising Fitness Photographer

Commercial Fitness Photography - Advertising

Fitness Photo Shoot - Workout - Health

A number of years ago I received a new assignment email from a long time client wanting some fitness photography. That’s not out of the ordinary, but their specific request was. They wanted some “bright and happy” fitness shots. My immediate response that I actually said out loud while reading the email was “why are you contacting ME?” Normally with advertising photography, clients/brands/art directors etc. are painfully specific about who they choose for a shoot. There’s a running joke/story out there about a food photographer who was showing his “fruit” portfolio to a client that needed his services. His work was exquisite. More beautiful images of fruit you could not find. The client loved what he did with apples, oranges, bananas, mango, kiwi, pineapple, etc.. After going through the whole portfolio though, she asked him “but can you photograph a yellow apple? Are you fuckin kidding me??? That sums up a lot of the photography industry . Most people aren’t capable of making the mental bridge and want a photographer to be so specific that they specialize in shooting “yellow apples” or whatever the fuck the case might be. I probably botched the story itself, but you get the point. Until receiving that email about a “bright and happy” fitness shoot, it was something that I’d never done. My style was always dark and gritty and probably the thing I was most known for. I thought, what the hell, let’s give it a go. So I took the assignment and ended up really enjoying it. Since then there have been a number of clients who have hired me to make images in a similar style for them. It’s been fun and I look forward to that change in pace/style from the dark and gritty. Currently working on a new gallery for the website of bright fitness images. Until then though, enjoy these shots which were made for a few different clients over the past year or so. They are a mix of indoor/outdoor and shot with natural light, strobed, bounced, diffused, etc, etc, etc


Kirstie Ennis

Fitness Photography - Los Angeles

Kirstie Ennis - GNC - General Nutrition Center

GNC - I AM UNBREAKABLE

Made a previous post with one BTS image from this shoot and wanted to follow up with some of the actual campaign images. Said it last time, but this was an incredible thing to be a part of. The still images were piggy backed on the video production with a very inspiring theme. GNC, the client, teamed up with former military people and Jay Glazer/his gym (Unbreakable in Hollywood) that made a line of supplements. The video would tell the story of these military veterans who had gone through some extremely tough patches in their life due to the experiences they encountered during service. Those physical and mental problems held them down for a time, but was later used as fuel for repair, ultimately putting them all in a better place. All along the way using fitness and community as the two major components of change. It was really moving to see these alphas in front of the camera being so vulnerable and honest. Something that is almost non-existent in todays world. The shoot involved 4 different athletes, but the images here are just Jay Glazer and Kirstie Ennis.

On ad shoots like this there is always a considerable amount of planning done ahead of time in order to get as much done as possible in a very limited amount of time. The video crew had a lot to get done as did I. So we had to work together, making slots for us all to get what we needed. Initially I planned on using all my strobes and having them set up to move in the second the video crew was done with a take. Nothing ever goes as planned though. It was immediately obvious that there would be no time for lighting set-ups on the go. The only option was to just shoot with available light. So all the images you see here were shot with video lighting. That’s part of what I love about commercial sets. You’re constantly solving problems and making decisions on the fly as they come up. You do your best in the beginning to plan, but “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”, as the great Mike Tyson once said.

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San Diego Fitness Photography

Last night California was hit with an official “Stay Home” quarantine due to the Coronavirus. What the hell does that have to do with fitness? A lot actually. The virus is hitting the whole world with effects that will last well past the next couple weeks or months. People will lose their jobs, and worse, their business’. It’s heartbreaking to think about all the small business’ out there that could possibly crumble from this pandemic. We are all restricted from living normal lives in order to restore order, and really, health. The stress that all of this will cause is much higher than most are used to. The one thing we can control however is activity. All of the normal places we turn to for fitness are closed down and for good reason. That’s not a reason to become sedentary however. Quite the opposite. If anything, this is a time when we should all turn to activity and physical fitness. Not just because of the obvious, but because of the emotional advantages it can give you. I’ve always been a believer in the positive effects working out can have on the mind and in relieving stress. So it’s time to get creative in how we all do this. Most of us are now faced with too much more free time , and the worst thing we can do is sit on the couch watching TV and stressing out about the current situation. Fitness helps everything. All aspects of life. Get creative.

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Gudang Garam

A while ago I had the pleasure of traveling to Indonesian to shoot an ad campaign for a client. Traveling and photography are my two favorite things, so this was a great experience on a lot of levels. One of the biggest being that the cultural differences were so far from what we have here. The client I went over for is the #1 cigarette company in Indonesia (Gudang Garam), and the shoot was entirely fitness based with a slogan of “NEVER QUIT”. That would never happen in America. A cigarette company in the states would never do a fitness shoot, certainly not with that type of slogan. Smoking over there is just a way of life though, so nobody real thinks twice about it. Personally I’m not a smoker, but I tried one of the cigarettes and it was kind of enjoyable. Not like the harsh cigarettes we have here. They are more flavored and easy to smoke. Probably like a clove if I were to compare it to anything. I’ll be posting some of the actual images from the shoot later on, but below are a couple things I pulled off the internet of my images in the wild around Indonesia.

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GudangGaram.jpg

Raleigh Fitness Photography

Multiple Exposure Fitness Photography

The box jump is an exercise that I find strange to photograph. For some reason the images always just seem boring. So why not play around a little?

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Southern California Fitness Photographer

Gym Shark Photo Shoot

Health and Fitness Lifestyle Photography

Been a long time since I’ve posted some commercial work, but here are a couple outtakes from a shoot I did for UK based fitness apparel company Gym Shark. They make really nice stuff and gave me a lot of freedom to shoot pretty much on my own, which I always love. The athlete just did his thing and I did mine. No real staging of any kind. Good times.

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San Diego Crossfit Photography

Bear Republic Crossfit

More experiments with sweat. As always, just looking for those different angles.

To see more of my CrossFit/Fitness images click here.

CrossFit Counterculture

CrossFit Photography - San Diego - Encinitas

More Crossfit photography. An itch for me that will never be scratched enough. 

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San Diego Fitness Photographer

Bear Republic Crossfit

Can't ever see becoming sick of shooting CrossFit. It's too real, which means that it never gets boring.  There is never a need to stage anything. You just let everything happen in front you and do your best to capture it. Real sweat. Not that from a spray bottle bullshit. 

www.robhammerphotography.com/crossfit