PAVEL YTHJALL PHOTOGRAPHY

The “IT” factor, WHO has it and can YOU get it?

Call time 7am. We are in a west Hollywood studio. The sun is just about to rise over the hills but it’s still chilly outside. The team is smoking cigarettes and joking around, a normal routine for them before the workday starts.

When she walks in no one notices her. She sits down by a table outside studio A, waiting.

After putting the team to work I find a girl sitting outside the studio, looking a bit lost. I say “-hi, who are you”.

She says “-I am the make up person” and smiles. I nod and say “welcome”. Then she laughs nervously and says “-no one recognizes me like this, in the morning,…”

My brain races and I quickly apologize (pretending I knew the whole time), “-ha ha ha, welcome, we’ll have a great shoot”. Slowly walking away I am thinking… so THAT is the famous model I booked? I am worried…

Turns out truly great models have a “switch” they can turn ON and their whole appearance changes, just like that! Her transformation is immediate, intense and catches me totally off guard. The shutter is like a machine gun, click, she switches pose, click, she smiles, click, new pose. She doesn’t miss a beat, in-between every click she changes her posture a little – just enough to tweak the shot and make it different, click, click, click … click, click, click…

My first assistant whispers “-slown down, you are gonna blow the ring flash”. -”WOW”. I stop shooting, look over at my 1st assistant, he nods at me as to say “this girl knows her stuff”.

You wonder why some fitness models get more gigs than others, this is the reason. And hard work. Really really really hard work.

The most amazing thing to watch is to see these great models turn it ON and OFF, ON and OFF over and over again, to go from an every day grey mouse to the queen of Sabah in a millisecond.

Being fit does not equal being a great model. Buying a camera does not equal being a great photographer. Being fit is a given, there are no rewards for being fit in the fitness model industry.

Modeling is a trade, you have to work at it, you have to twist and turn in front of the mirror to get to know your angles, learn your body’s strengths and weaknesses, which side of your face is best, chin down or chin up, eyes wide open or more hazy looking. Learn to hide your weaknesses, always, and highlight your strengths, always!

A good photographer can take all that and create true art. A good photographer will recognize that particular models skill set and enhance them to another level.

But the photographer has to have something to work with. You can not come in to a shoot expecting to be told exactly what to do. You have to bring your uniqueness to the table. You have to be able to move. You have to be interested. You do NOT have to have the best body in the world, it is not about that. It is about showing off YOUR physique in YOUR best angels together with a facial expression demanded of that particular shoot/client.

The worlds most published & successful fitness models right now are: Pauline Nordin, Jamie Eason, Jennifer Nicole Lee – “all bring it” to a shoot.

One might also notice that not all of these women even compete very frequently. They are true athletes indeed but not often seen in competitions which goes to tell that a “competition body” is not the same as a “modeling body”, these can be the same thing but are often not.

One more thing they all have in common is that they also contribute as writers and spokes persons. Pauline Nordin has her own very successful diet concept Fighter Diet, she is sponsored by AST Sports Science and she writes for several international magazines and websites. Jamie Eason is sponsored by Bodybuilding.com and writes for Oxygen magazine. Jennifer Nicole Lee is sponsored by BSN online, can be seen in informercials and has her own successful company and her own published book.

You don’t have to be a writer to be an “IT girl” but in the fitness world the competition is fierce and having something to say together with a beautiful body has worked for these girls.

Listen to me. You CAN work and get the “IT factor”. You can! The “it factor” is all about knowing your own body. When you learn to always present yourself from the best angle, “find the light” on set, tweak every fiber of your body to your advantage – then you have the “it factor”.

I am a photographer. I was born with talent but I work extremely hard to nourish and develop my talent, everyday, no exceptions.

Sincerely, Pavel Ythjall

Photos: Talented hardworking up and comer in the fitness world: Ashley Horner.

I love Women (with muscles)

I met my ex wife in a gym. I should be more truthful… I saw my ex wife in a gym.

I was just passing through the city of Malmoe on my way from Stockholm to Ibiza on my motorcycle. Me and my best friend stopped in Malmoe overnight and I decided to get a workout in. That workout changed my life.

It was impossible not to notice her. She had an aura around her that I had never seen before. She was so strong, so determined, so focused, so sexy. She was running on the treadmill and with every stride I saw her muscles contract and release, contract and release, contract and release.

I remember just stopping cold staring at her. Staring and not caring I just stood there. I forced myself to move but found myself doing most off my exercises on machines straight in her patch, I tried to catch her eye but she looked straight through me. She never flinched. She never looked at me. For her, there was nothing but her and the machine. She was there to work. She was there to be the best she could be and nothing would or could distract her.

There was nothing but crude determination and willpower in her face. Id never seen anything like that. I am 6′3 and know how to handle myself but she crushed me. She crushed me without even looking at me. My whole being wanted to approach her but I couldn’t find enough guts to do it.

My trip through Europe continued and 4 weeks later and found myself back in the same gym and there she was again, as determined and as beautiful as ever.

This young girl on the verge of womanhood mesmerized evereything and everyone around her. You immediately know when you are in the same room as greatness and I was. I chickened out (again) and never forgave myself for not approaching her this time either.

Back home I couldn’t sleep, eat or work. I convinced the receptionist at the gym to put up a “Wanted poster” in the gym reception where I described her and politely asked if she would be interested in contacting me. This was well before Facebook and Myspace.

3 months passed and then the phone rang…

I owe her my life and even though she is not my wife anymore Pauline Nordin, founder of Fighter Diet.com  - is the ONE that opened my eyes to fit and toned women.

She is the ONE that inspired me, she is my muse, she is my friend and she has 14000 Facebook fans that now get to share her greatness, just as I got to do a long time ago.

Skip La Cour (AST Sports Science natural athlete) once gave Pauline her nickname “Little Arnold” and to this date that is the best description I have heard. If she had the chance I know she would outlift even Arnold and I think he would have smiled and liked it.

I love women with muscles. I love them on camera and I love them off camera.

Pavel

Photo by: Pave Ythjall, published in FLEX magazine: Pauline Nordin

Photos Courtesy of BODY magazine: Ava Cowan & Jessica Paxson Putnam

Bikini – What’s Not To Love?

Have you seen a bikini show! Perfectly toned women make their way across the stage as they where on a cat walk in a las vegas club. They are athletic, sassy and provocative and they know it! The confidence these girls show is so enticing, so adorable, so attractive and so entertaining. This is great entertainment, a true show and the overwhelming success the bikini division has leaves little doubt that this is it, now and in the future.

Just as UFC handpicks fights to create the most entertaining fights for the fans, the bikini division is just that – hugely entertaining.

Bikini is what bodybuilding was in the 90’s, its alive, vibrant, it stirs up emotions and its mainstream!

In a world off “likes” and when just about everything is “reviewed” and where the value of your Facebook page is determined in posts and responses bikini hits the mark and hits it good! The bikini girls are getting more publicity in all the magazines than ever before. The bikini girls are getting endorsements. The bikini girls are feminine, they are empowered, they know how to show it off, they smile on stage, whats not to love folks?

Bikini is what figure never was. Bikini is natural and the bikini body is mainstream and everyone wants it, women as well as men. Bikini is a healthy sport and yeah, it’s as much a sport as UFC.

In the UFC you get fights by being entertaining. There is NO system for climbing up the ladder to a title, there is ONLY being entertaining and winning fights as in bikini, there is NO system or criterias, there is ONLY being the most entertaining, most athletic and the best you can ever be and the rest will follow.

Bikini gets it, its fast and fun. Its bigger brother bodybuilding, in all honesty is slooooooow and not so fun, do you really wanna see one more bodybuilding routine? do you really …?

Bodybuilding, get some inspiration from the bikini division! Mandatories first and then a pose down! Thats it. Honestly, judges and audience alike know the top 3 within the first minute of the athletes hitting the stage, you know it, they know it and I know it.

This is 2011. There is no room for a sport not to be entertaining, fast and fun. UFC is fast and fun. Bikini is fast and fun.

I am a bikini fan, I am a UFC fan and I am a Krav Maga practitioner (fast & fun) and I shoot bikini bods in Los Angeles which is very FUN.

Pavel Ythjall

Photos: photo shoot with bikini Champion Sonia Gonzales for FLEX magazine’s “Girls Are Back”. Anca Marcus, bikini competitor and featured in FLEX magazine. Khay Rosemond, bikini competitor and featured in “Treningsforum”, SimplyShredded.com and more.

Props go out to J.M. Manion and the IFBB for creating the bikini division. I believe, in retrospect this will turn out to be one of their biggest contribution to the sport, ever.

Every time I shoot I fall in love

This woman is a racehorse, she is a finely tuned machine waiting to perform, she is a fighter, she has more drive and will to succeed than you and I ever will. She is a sensual, ubersexy, warm and  giving person and now she has entrusted me to document her physique.

She is dressed in minimal torn and ripped clothing, tanned, oiled, sprayed with water and glycerine, all her hard work on display. Its cold, we are in a huge concrete building. R1 Centre in Inglewood is the original mma gym of Los Angeles. A few fighters is shadow boxing in the background. This is real for them and for us.

She is nervous. I am nervous, I am always so fucking nervous. The team is awaiting marching orders …

The whole experience is more physical than anything. Being creative means opening up your inner self for the world to see more of you than you dare, for the world to comment and judge you. Being creative means bleeding, sacrifice, vomiting, being dead tired, overcoming fears and never never never let it shine through while you are shooting …

Time to create magic. True art is created when a positive vibe translates over to the whole team and everyone from the runner, make up, styling, grip and lighting, the photographer, model and art director works together in harmony.

This is what I do and I do it in Los Angeles, The City of Angels. I love my life.

Lets do this.

Pavel Ythjall