“Look for the light!” was the best piece of photographic advice I’ve been given.
The most awesome photographic shots can be created if you manipulate the light!
Let me show you some examples (of manipulated light, not necessarily awesome shots 😉 )
This is me shooting me, in August 2009, just before I flew off to New York to shoot with Tom Venuto and Adam Waters in the gym…
There is one wall light on in the room, dimmed to its lowest level, and the rest of the lighting comes from bouncing the flash off the very low ceiling – I could paint that ceiling without having to stand on anything, to give you some idea of how low it was.
Cool huh! No trickery, just manipulation of light.
I used the same room, the same mirror but different lighting to shoot a client of mine, Kyle…
This was actually shot during the day, I was standing behind Kyle and shot his reflection in the mirror – I still bounced the flash off the ceiling, but the shutter speed and other settings were different so I could manipulate the amount of light hitting the sensor in the camera.
This was also shot in a mirror using natural light only – the sun would set facing this room and it produced the most amazing light…
I second shot a wedding a couple of years ago with a wedding ‘tog friend of mine – the MASTER of light and dark, in my opinion, and the one who gave me the light advice – toys had been provided for the little kids to play with and they just so happened to be right in front of the best windows for shooting sillhouettes; marvellous!
It doesn’t just apply to people – I love this apocalyptic looking sky that I shot at sunset, earlier this year…
So what’s my point?
The balance between light and shade – all of these shots show what I want them to because there was the right balance between light and dark, shadows and highlights.
Direct light is a menace; the middle of the day with the sun high in the sky doesn’t make for good shadows. If the light is too bright a lot of the subtle details are lost.
It’s been miserable weather here for the last two days – stormy, with dark clouds sliding across the sky. Rubbish for walking dogs in, GREAT for seeing emerging six packs in because of the light…or rather lack of, which pulls the shadows out and reflects the highlights.
THIS is what I saw in the mirror this morning and caught with my iPhone – 25 more days and that full six pack is MINE! I’m not too excited; much 😀
Another week vanished in the blink of an eye and now there are only four weeks to go.
On the one hand it feels like there’s hardly any time left; on the other, four weeks is feeling like quite a lot of time!
Everything, for me, is on target at the end of week six; changes in the numbers are small and I really must remember that I’m not going to see huge decreases in them any more.
Patience is also still a big element – I distinctly remember the coach telling me, a fair while ago now, that the leaner you are the harder it is to lower your body fat; he wasn’t wrong!
I’m having to resist the temptation to do more and MORE. The key here is going to be steady consistency of doing the right things for another four weeks.
If I rush off and try to do more training for the next 27 days, I’ll be burned out before I know it AND be in huge trouble with the coach too 😉
So P A T I E N C E and CONSISTENCY are the watch words…as always 😀
(…have you noticed how quickly my hair’s growing though!!!)
Week Six pictures
Comparisons with day zero
Week Six numbers
I live in a very old village called Old.
It’s origins can be traced back to the Doomsday Book and it only became known as Old in the 1930s, previously to that, and since the 14th century, it had been referred to as Wolde.
Old is quite big by village standards, even though you can drive through it in two minutes, and has a population of about 400 people and 200 houses.
Actually, make that 200 and a bit houses! There’s a ‘new’ one being built just a few hundred yards down the road and it’s fascinating watching it grow from nothing into something that resembles a house.
I say it’s ‘new’ because although it is, it’s being built to look like it’s always been there and it won’t be long before everyone forgets what things looked before it was built.
I drive past the construction work every time I leave the village, and today the roof trusses were going on. I do a lot of thinking when I’m driving and watching that house being created from nothing sparked a rather nice analogy in my head.
Work on that house actually started way back in March or April, when whatever building was there before (I’ve already forgotten!) was knocked down.
Then, although there always a fair bit of activity going on on site, nothing much seemed to be happening.
They were underpinning a huge wall that runs along the side of the lane and that the entire long external side of the building will sit on – you don’t get anything to show for underpinning, but it’s VERY important!
After a while the solid footprint of the house appeared; the foundations on which everything else will sit. Again, when the house is finished you won’t see them but we all know what happens when you build something on shaky foundations! So they’re pretty fundamental too.
Then the interior walls went up – a double-skin of ugly grey concrete blocks with layers of polystyrene insulation in between them. DEFINITELY not the sort of look you’d want for a house, but these walls are the skeleton of the house and everything else will ‘hang’ from them.
Without these ugly walls, there’d still only be foundations waiting to be built upon.
The house really started to look good when the external walls were added; big blocks of local yellow Ironstone that look fantastic and will be what people see when they look at the house.
All of the hard work that went into the underpinning of the wall, the foundations and the internal structure that’s hidden behind the cosmetic ‘niceness’, inside and out, is now invisible. But it’s what holds everything together, without it all having been done first the house would collapse.
If you’re struggling just now, then design your ‘house’.
It could be a physique ‘house’ or a stronger emotional one; design it like an architect, draw up plans that go into the tiniest of detail.
Then get to work:
1) Clear the existing site – you can’t build something new on top of something old.
2) Underpin anything that is going to take the strain – if you have medical issues, get them checked out by a doctor. If you want support, find the people who can give it to you.
3) Build your foundations – you’ve got your design, the underpinning is done, now you need to make sure your foundations are strong.
Be VERY clear and focused on why, and what, you’re doing. Make sure you have everything you need – the correct eating plan and clean food in the house, the right training programme for you and everything you need to be able to complete it; or whatever it is that you need to make sure what you’re going to build on is solid.
4) NOW you can start building your walls – but don’t expect your ‘house’ to appear overnight, it won’t. But progress towards it can begin overnight…right now in fact.
All houses are built laying one brick at a time; if your design is good and your foundations strong, then with vision, a close eye on your design, consistency and patience your new ‘house’ will be looking marvellous in no time.
YOU are the architect and builder of your life. If you don’t like it, draw up a new design, clear your site and build one you DO like 😀
Last week no change, apart from weight up a bit.
This week ALL change 😀
I left my food numbers and training for this week the same as they were for last week, even though nothing had moved last week. It can be too easy to panic and start cutting this out and adding this in when things appear to have come to a standstill.
But then what happens if the results aren’t what you were expecting again the following week? What do you do? You mess with things again, now you’re just guessing because you have no trend to base anything on and before you know it you have no idea which way is up.
THEN what happens? Most often you fall off the wagon in spectacular s t y l e!
So with calories left at 2,500 and no changes to my training I’m glad to report that everything is on the move again, and must confess to being rather excited about how everything will be in ANOTHER five weeks time.
That’s the same amount of time again as we’ve already done 😀
Mind you, I did give myself a bit of a wake-up call yesterday when I was out in the fields with Morpheus. It sounds like quite a lot when I say there’s another five weeks to go, or the same amount of time again but the reality of it is this:
- There are ONLY another 15 weight sessions to go
- There are ONLY another 10 cardio sessions to go
That’s IT!
When you start breaking things down into sessions left, rather than weeks, it v e r y quickly focuses the mind on what has to be done.
Week Five pictures
Comparisons with day zero
Week Five numbers
Bring on WEEK SIX!!!!
The answer’s pretty simple – a winning ATTITUDE!
I’m a HUGE rugby fan and the Autumn Internationals are starting this weekend.
First up is England v New Zealand this coming Saturday, then we play Australia the following week, Samoa the week after and finally South Africa on the 27th.
Remember what I said about winning requiring a winning attitude?
So imagine my disbelief when the CEO of the English Rugby Football Union was reported to have said that, “Two wins out of four would be enough.”
Enough for WHAT??!!!
HELLO!!!??? What sort of attitude is THAT?!
I’m sure, well I HOPE, it doesn’t reflect the attitude of the England squad because if it does (even in the tiniest of amounts) then they might as well not bother turning up, because they will have already lost.
If you want to WIN you must believe you already HAVE; EVERY game…not just some of them.
There should be no room for, “ohhh well, you’ll win some you’ll lose some” in your attitude. You must fight to win EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!
Do I have six pack yet? No. Do I believe I already have? YES! Will I have one in five weeks time? YES! No questions, no doubt, just WINNING!
It’s Friday again tomorrow – the last day of six pack training for week five; Friday is also my ‘day off’.
When I say day off, I mean it’s supposed to be a day away from the computer. However, for the last…hmmm, I can’t even remember how many weeks now, that’s not been the case.
It took me a while to get my head around it and have various conversations with myself about it…
What if someone emails me with something important?
“Tell everyone you’ll no longer be available on Fridays and that anything incoming will be dealt with on Saturday.”
What if someone needs/wants to talk to me and discovers I’m not at the end of the computer?!
(I even made myself laugh with this one – you can tell I was clutching at straws!) “You’re not serious?! They’ll just move along and either get on with whatever it was they were doing or find someone else to talk to.”
Erm…ok, but what am I going to do all day?!
“Well that’s the fun bit! Anything you like as long as it’s not in front of the computer.”
The review schedule, for the writing side of my life, has been causing a bit of mayhem for the last few weeks. It sounds quite innocent doesn’t it ‘the review schedule’ but it’s a MONSTER and I’m glad I don’t have to organise all of it!
It involves a lot of work and for it function properly requires PRs, writers and reviewers to all be on the ball. As soon as one link in that chain breaks chaos generally follows.
Throw in a new software system for tracking who’s doing what, when and for whom, that’s caused a bit of confusion and the upshot has been stepping in at the last minute to fill in gaps and most of my reviews falling on…FRIDAYS!
I don’t have a review to write for tomorrow and I’m rather excited about that! 😀
I do have lots of other work I could do instead – I’m NOT very excited about that! 🙁
I’ve come to really enjoy my days away from the computers and so, as of tomorrow, I’m going to reclaim them!
I’ve already turned all the alarms off and I’m not going to get up until I CHOOSE to – if that happens to be 5.30am then so be it.
I’m going to train in the morning, then take Morpheus out and when I get back I’m going to have a nice hot shower.
After that I’m going to go OUT! I have no idea where yet, but it won’t be to the supermarket and it won’t be for any domestic reasons. It’ll be somewhere and something purely indulgent and just for me – I have no idea what that’ll be yet, but I’m already looking forward to it!
I may, or may not, have to be ‘back’ late afternoon to meet up with Edward and his dad for the weekly swimming lesson, followed by playing Lego Star Wars on the PS3, as they’re away at the coast with family this week.
They should have been back today, but Bear’s not been very well…let’s just say that straying too far away from a bathroom is a v e r y bad idea and a four hour car journey an even worse one, so they’re staying put tonight and will reassess the situation tomorrow.
One of the things I can guarantee about my day off tomorrow is that training will be the first thing I do (and I’m going to make an appointment with the dentist as it’s been on my list of things to do ALL week!)
Training every day is right at the top of my priorities list; it’s the one hour in every day that I can truly have to myself. That time belongs to ME and I train for ME because it makes ME feel good and it makes ME look good.
18 months ago I felt terribly guilty about that and I remember apologising to the family for it, “I’m sorry, I need to go and train. I’ll try and be as quick as I can.”
I’m not sure when I became less important than anyone else in the family, in my own head, but that’s where I was and it took a lot of soul searching and effort to get rid of that very misguided belief.
I’ve been asked, more than once (or twice), whether I’m not being a bit selfish with all this training.
‘All this training’? What, one hour a day for five or six days a week to work on getting/staying fit and healthy? I don’t think so!
When did it become so ‘wrong’ to want to do something that makes you feel better about yourself?
When did it become so ‘wrong’ to want to look your best and feel strong and confident?
When did it become so ‘wrong’ to take a little bit of time every day and do something that meant you COULD feel better about yourself, look your best and feel, strong and confident?
Put aside just one hour every day, just for you, and do something physical with it!
Go for a walk, take an exercise class, pick up some dumbbells, go swimming, go for a bike ride or get lost in some goal setting whilst pedalling on the exercise bike whatever takes your fancy- but DO something every day and make it all ABOUT YOU!
Today is turning into one of those days where my ‘To Do List’ is getting longer rather than shorter!
So I thought I’d better tell you about the day so far, in case I don’t get to come back later on.
Today’s training was MEAN!
I got it done as early as possible in anticipation of today’s ensuing madness – that way, if all else fails, when I turn the light out tonight I can at least say that my training was DONE!
Lower body, high reps make for v e r y shaky legs!
If you want to get your heart rate going and your muscles burning then this certainly does the trick – my legs are still feeling a bit wobbly and I still need to take the dog out!
You haven’t met him have you; the four-legged canine ‘baby’ of the family.
Here he is with the two-legged baby of the family.
He’s eight years old and still thinks he’s a puppy I’m sure.
He’s lovely and his big puppy dog ‘please can we go out for a walk now? You’ve been awake for A G E S” eyes are irresistible, even when it’s cold and raining – although, it has to be said, he takes some persuading to go out when it’s really hammering down with rain!
It could be more of a leisurely stroll for me (well I’ll try my best anyway) after today’s wobbly leg inducing training, and then there are just two training days left of this week!
Which means that come Sunday we’ll be exactly half way through the Six Pack Girl Challenge.
Half way…it hardly seems possible; we’ve only just got started!
The time is flying by so fast, I can’t believe it’s Wednesday tomorrow already!
Today’s post is just a couple of bits and pieces of ramblings and musing that have been wandering around in my head during the last week or so…
My body clock seems to have gone a little bit haywire – this morning I woke up at 2am wide awake.
This happened one day last week too (I’ve been meaning to check back and see if it’s the SAME day of the week as before, but I keep getting sidetracked with other things) and so by 3am I was already up and writing for the day.
I muse a lot when I write and over the last week I’ve come to a conclusion – it’s not new and it’s not earth shattering, but it bears reinforcing:
Last Tuesday my day was somewhat ‘interrupted’ on several occasions as a result of a number of people I know being rather upset.
There must have been something ‘going on’ in the Universe because none of these people know each other and they all ended up on my ‘doorstep’ within four hours of each other!
It doesn’t matter how busy I am, if someone needs me to listen, or my shoulder to cry on, then I’ll stop whatever I’m doing for them.
So I picked up lots of pieces and put them back together, in roughly the right order, stemmed floods of tears and listened long enough for everyone to feel happy to go on their way again.
I can’t go in to the detail but in each case the upset was a direct result of other people’s actions and/or comments.
Before – not upset; after – very upset.
The same conclusion keeps knocking at the window…
Negativity, mean, or careless, comments and aggression are like fire – the damage they cause spreads fast and can be devastating.
If you let the negativity undermine your self-belief then you are fanning the flames and they will spread even quicker.
Starve it of oxygen – ie your time, your attention, your thoughts and your reaction to it – and it will die out almost as fast as it ignited.
Fire cannot breathe without oxygen; don’t fan the flames and let them burn away your dreams, goals and ambitions! Starve it of attention and it will go away.
Time is marching on ever-quicker and that can be quite ‘scary’ when you’re not seeing results as fast as you’d like and all you can hear is the clock ticking louder and louder.
The thing is, the more you worry about something the more furiously the flames of anger/resentment/self-doubt/panic/upset/fear* start to burn and you become so focused on THEM that you take your eyes off your original goal – in this instance six packs!
*choose whichever is applicable
Focus on the negative things people say and you won’t be able to hear the good things you should be listening to instead.
Think you can’t do something and you won’t be able to. If something seems impossible…so what? If it’s something you want, MAKE it possible. Tell me what the Wright brothers would make of today’s modern air travel?
What do you think they’d say if I could go back to just before their maiden flight and tell them that in a relatively short space of time, it would be possible to get on plane and fly to the other side of the world?
What about Alexander Graham Bell? What would he make of the mobile phone technology we have today?
It wasn’t that long ago we first put a man on the moon – tell that to someone who lived 100, even 50, years previously and they’d think you were mad.
Dream IMPOSSIBLE dreams, keep them close to you to remind you of your path and why you’re treading it. Starve negative flames of oxygen, stay on your path and those dreams will eventually become your reality.
The big kids are on half term holidays from school this week and it’s very odd having them here during the day again.
Jack trained today instead of yesterday; he discovered that I don’t just sit around all day drinking coffee and painting my nails, so when he appeared from his bedroom to train at 8am, the time for him was gone as I was knee-deep in work.
6am this morning and he was up bright and early and ready to go.
He’s doing very well, is much more easy with the exercises now than he was when he started and is working hard as the weight gets heavier.
He has two very short term goals in his sights at the moment,
1) be able to beat me at an arm wrestle (I hate to say that it’s probably not too far off *sigh* )
2) be able to bench press more than me (this might be a little further off 😉 )
The bar currently has two 10kgs plates on it from when I trained yesterday and it’s obviously been ‘calling’ to him since then. I couldn’t stand it any more and asked, “Jack…do you want to try it?”
He stood there beaming at me like a Cheshire cat and nodded his head.
He got himself into position on the bench ready to take the weight. I had it,
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“Yep,” he said.
“It’s yours,” I said, and released the weight.
Down….U – – – P!! I took the weight back…
“OK…that’s heavy!”
Bent over rows with 18kgs…? They were heavy too, funnily enough.
We were in the car coming back from having his haircut (which looks FABULOUS btw!) and out of the blue he asked:
“Mum…our biceps are the same size, so why is it that you can lift more than I can?”
Well now, isn’t THAT an interesting question!
Do you know the answer?
Have a stab at it here if you’re brave enough to let us all have a look at what you think the answer is, or send it to me privately, using the contact form, if you’re feeling a little shy 😀
I’ll let you know the answer tomorrow!
INTERESTING!
That’s what I think about my results this week – interesting!
Numerically nothing’s changed from last week other than what the scales say.
I’ve put on 0.7kgs and my bodyfat has stayed the same at 10.2% – interesting thing no.1 is the maths! I’ve run the numbers, more than once, and always get the same answer, but it doesn’t make sense!
If my weight has gone up and my BF% has stayed the same, then logic would say I’ve increased muscle and nothing else, right?
Run the maths: 57kgs/100 x 10.2 = 5.814 bf% Last week’s numbers: 56.3kgs/100 x 10.2 = 5.742 bf%
So that’s an increase of 72 grams for a figure that’s stayed the same – work THAT out if you’ve got nothing better to do; I don’t think I’ll be worrying about 72 grams though 😉
Interesting thing no.2 is my clothes! They are definitely getting looser week by week…either that or they’re stretching, it’s gotta be one of the two!
Anyway…that’s week four done! One more week and we’ll have hit the half way mark. Which sounds like no time left at all, but at the same feels like lots and I’m rather excited about what will be achieved in the same amount of time again.
Week four pictures
Comparison with day zero
Week four numbers
So there you have it! On to WEEK FIVE!