This time around handstands were the activity of choice.

After a few adjustments we started to come up with some really cool ideas. Check out a few:

Might be redoing this first one as an advertisement for them.

The “much easier” style with both hands…

To make things harder you can also do them on parallettes:

I wasn’t really sure how things were going to turn out because it was a pretty plain studio space but the pieces he created were pretty extraordinary. I didn’t want to short-change him on the photos that were running with this story about how awesome his work was (awesome enough to earn him a hefty grant to essentially just do whatever he wants with).

The space we shot in had two large benches that he’d created for a building in New York City.

This is what I came up with…

What he is leaning on is one half of those benches.

He was telling me how he basically has to build a rough model of anything he makes first using wood that he will have to pull apart and trash later. He had piles of wood laying around that I thought would make for an interesting background.

I found out after the fact that Matthias is also from New Orleans, which is a place I’m a big fan of. I have some personal ties to the area and have some friends that live down there. In fact, one of the photos on my main site (scroll to the last image on the first window) is from New Orleans.

Hope you like them!

Most recently I was in there because they’re hosting the Golden Key Boutique which is basically a shopping event that will benefit some local charities. It’s this Saturday (November 13th) from 1 to 6 p.m. at their shop (4353 Main Street). A few other stores on that stretch are going to be offering  deals as well.

Molly Cygan is the owner and was gracious enough to let us photograph her for the story we were doing on the event:

It was just a simple one-light setup but I thought the photo came out really nice. It helped that she seemed extremely comfortable in front of the camera considering there were people walking by only a few feet behind me!

The setup was pretty straightforward but the main image needed to have seven people in it. I had seen an early cut of the movie but was a bit nervous with that many people needing to show such a range of emotions.

Then I realized I was working with actors, who are used to taking cues, and everything worked out extremely well.

This is the image I believe they are using for the poster:

The shoot was hardly as serious as this photo may portray.

Whitney and Krista are good friends.

Joe and Whitney wanted to retake their prom picture.

To be honest, I can’t remember what inspired this but I’m thinking something along the lines of “Godzilla!”

Shaun and Krista acting like they were in Titanic.

As if things weren’t weird enough, when Greg finally showed up he took it to another level.

Everything wasn’t all jokes though.

Shaun and Joe play two best friends who accidentally hook up with the other one’s dream girl.

Here, Shaun is with (from left) Whitney (Joe’s dream girl) and Krista (his dream girl).

Nervous Joe with Sultry Krista.

This was the first frame I took after turning the lights on…I knew it was going to be a good shoot when I saw this on my screen.

Stay tuned for more to come, I just wanted to get some of these out there ASAP.

]]> http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/swooped-movie-poster-shoot/feed/ 0 http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/firebreathers/ http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/firebreathers/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:41:49 +0000 admin http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/?p=132 I first was introduced to CrossFit when I was helping select the movies for the second annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival last year. When I was watching “Every Second Counts” I kind of thought that these guys were people I would never meet…boy was I wrong.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to what my new CrossFit trainers call their “firebreathers”, the group of really intense, really fit and strong athletes that workout at the same gym I do.

All CrossFit 215 workouts (like most CrossFit workouts) begin with a stretch/warmup and go into a strength section before getting into the actual WOD (Workout Of the Day) begins. Below, Z shows off how to do a Clean with a ridiculous amount of weight…

As explained in my previous post, (from left) Matt, Jay and Z do muscle ups.

One of the things that I think is really the coolest parts about CrossFit is that everyone is treated equally. Workouts are made for everyone…not specifically for guys or for girls. Weights will vary per person but they are varied based on strength…period.

Trust me, I am lifting less than a lot of the athletes at this gym – no matter if they are guys or girls.

Now, CrossFit is hard.

Most lifting routines that base themselves off of people pushing themselves hard enough to risk vomiting during each and every workout screams to me of people not wanting their picture taken.

Not here.

During this workout people weren’t really paying attention to me but there were points where someone will say something that reminds me they are indeed happy (albeit hurting) during their workout. Both Micah and Jay, the trainers at CrossFit 215, have talked about the positive energy they feed off of at the gym…I can completely attest to this.

After doing a pretty intense workout that would’ve undoubtedly made me join the Boot Camp (the vomit team), these guys wanted to keep going because there was a camera around.

Z does an ‘upside down rope climb’ which is exactly what you think it is.

Apparently doing this is common amongst the firebreathers….

]]> http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/firebreathers/feed/ 0 http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/meet-abe/ http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/meet-abe/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:58:10 +0000 admin http://mattgodfrey.com/blog/?p=127 The other day I got to meet and photograph Abe Haupt. He is a Philadelphia-based realtor who really knows what he is talking about. Also, he is an extremely funny guy. He had me in stitches for the whole shoot!

For anyone who knows Colin, you know he isn’t a shy dude. In fact, he actually was did some facial hair grooming specifically for this photo:

As I’d expected I was basically just a button-pusher on this one as he knew exactly what he wanted and he essentially just needed someone to hold the camera.

This is one of the gym’s owners, Jay Ross.

Apparently, unlike most human beings, these guys can do iron crosses at will. Crossfit is big on not isolating any muscle but using all your muscles in every workout…that’s why they do things like this…

This is Micah, the other owner.

As if doing deadlifts and cleans weren’t hard enough, these guys went out and bought chains to add a higher level of difficulty to the lifts. Since the chains lay on the ground the bar actually gets heavier the higher off the ground it gets (because the weight of the chains starts adding to the bar.)

Kettlebell swings. I brought my lights along and broke them out because I was having so much fun. When I showed them this one they immediately said they thought it was a postcard for Crossfit!

In order to make kettlebells even harder they do one-handed swings as well.

They were telling me that the sort of benchmark in Crossfit is being able to do a move called a ‘Muscle-Up’. A Muscle-Up begins by hanging from gymnastics rings that are set above your head and ends with you being fully extended above the rings. Here are the basic moves:

They are tough, to say the least, but during a recent workout I watched a handful of Crossfit athletes doing them at will. All of it just makes me more and more nervous for my workouts when.

Anyway, this is what I got:

Yards Brewing founder Tom Kehoe

Not to gush about the bookstore but it is THE BEST used bookstore around. They have over 100,000 books all housed in an old movie theater right on Richmond Street in Port Richmond.

Anyway, the photo below was a quickie. We deadline on Tuesday so most stuff is supposed to be in on Monday morning. Only problem was that these two weren’t going to be in the same place until late Monday night. BUT, I was able to meet them for a bit late Monday and was able to pull this off with just one light.

(It was hard to find a spot that wasn’t overrun by stacks of books. I think we did a good job, though.)

They are both extremely cool people. Tenaya Darlington (left) and Joe Samuel Starnes are their names.

I only normally write stories about things that interest me (we have staff writers that do the heavy lifting) and I’m so glad I asked to write this. Sadly I wasn’t able to make the actual workshop but I hear that it might start being a regular thing, which I think would be awesome. I would love to write a book someday!