Lynn Kelly, the former Miss Universe Ireland (2008) has been causing a bit of a stir lately with her workout regime. Posting workout photos on her Instagram Feed was getting a Lynn lot of attention, and rightly so as she looks incredible. Lynn trains in No. 17 Personal Training, in Merrion Square, Dublin. Indeed since she started training there, a whole team of her fellow Assets models have started to train there, including Hazel O’Sullivan. If you follow Lynn on twitter, you will get the #ninjamode reference 
Lynn had gotten in touch about a year ago to get some new shots for her portfolio, I was really looking forward to it as back then I was still getting my name out there in the photography scene (still am). To work with high-profile and experienced models like Lynn would have been a great addition to my portfolio. However, between different things happening and scheduling conflicts, we kept putting it off… until recently. I got in touch with her again and the timing worked out great for both of us and we made it happen. We planned out a shoot with the aim of getting it published and took it from there. I called up Aimee Connolly to get her on board for Hair & Make-up, she did an amazing job as always.
When planning out a shoot to get it published, what I have learned so far is that there are two main things to take into consideration…. back story and pictures. The back story is the text of the spread, the hook of the shoot. A spread being a double page spread, usually 3/4 of the space is pictures and text and the other 1/4 is adverts. Timing the shoot to coincide with something interesting in the models life will help with getting a shoot published, i.e. the ICA Boot Camp with Rachel Wallace or Tallafornia with Kelly Donegan. If there is nothing interesting happening with the model at the time and if they are not that well-known, then the chances of getting a spread are reduced… you might get a quarter page out of it. If the models are of a higher profile, then you have a better chance of landing a spread. Of course, it goes without saying that back story alone won’t land you a spread, the pictures are going to be the main part of it. The main rules of thumb that go for the pictures is that sex sells and give the photo editor choice.
For Lynn’s shoot, we decided to focus on her super hot “ninjamode” body that she has been sculpting with the help of John Belton and Sophie Kavanagh… who are now known as #Team17. Initially we were going to shoot in My Studio but Lynn sent me some shots of the gym and I liked the look of, in particular the outdoor gym section. I liked the outdoor section as it is different to a normal gym shoot. There is a big climbing rope out there too and as soon as I saw it I knew the type of shot I wanted to do with it.
Shooting on Location is always a challenge…. but a fun one. It’s great to get out of the studio and to be able to have shots that are different from your usual studio stuff. For this shoot, I decided to keep it as simple as possible in terms of lighting. All of the shots were lit with a single speedlight in an umbrella. Using speedlights is easier and faster than using my Elinchrom studio lights when on location… and in particular when space is tight. Another reason for using the speedlights is that I wanted to shoot at 1.4 for these shoots and the studio strobes would not stop down enough to obtain correct exposure. Helping me out with the light and gear on the day was Jason Ennis. Jason works for me in my School, Sports and Events Photography Company, DE Photo Ireland, so it was good to have him on board and giving him some experience.
Big shout out to John, Kevin and Sophie for helping us out on the day. They have a great setup, go check it out if you’re looking for a gym in Dublin. Thats if for now on the shoot. It was published in the Irish Daily Star and Irish Daily Mail on November 29th. I will be hopefully shooting with Lynn again in January, in studio this time. Stay tuned for that
In the mean time, follow Team17 on twitter:
https://twitter.com/Lynnkelly_
https://twitter.com/Johnbelton
https://twitter.com/Courtneyohara