PAVEL YTHJALL PHOTOGRAPHY

Notion Studios, Downtown Los Angeles. 10 hour day, 4 set ups
Ad shoot for FighterDiet.com. Fighter Diet has in a very short period become a huge success and its founder, Pauline Nordin, is following up her previous campaign with a new for this fall, to be seen in Muscle & Fitness HERS, Oxygen magazine, SHAPE etc.

Campaign ad (previous campaign, photo and art director: Pavel Ythjall)

2 1/2 hours per shot
It seems like a lot but when you are creating an ad campaign its nothing and when you are working with the founder, Pauline Nordin, you gotta be ready for the ride cause this young lady knows what she wants and she will get it.

Sarah Scotford
Courtesy of Paul Buceta and his annual pool party I met multi talented Sarah Scotford in Los Cabos, Mexico last year. This model, actress, make up artist, model coach and joy spreader is invaluable when shooting high profile campaigns or editorials with women. We flew Sarah in from Toronto, Canada, to spend some time with us in L.A and help us out with some shoots, this being the main one.

Sarah’s beauty is in all honesty enough to have her on any set, just being there..

Zach, my trusted 1th assistant, liked by women, not only because off his youth and manners but his lighting skills, was accompanied by Matt as 2nd and Courtney as digital tech and my right hand.

Fitness Ads
Fitness ads are 10 years behind. Most ads feature a woman or man showing a lot off skin, trying to be sexy, with a huge product on them, around them, in them, beside them or just everywhere.

AST Sports Science
In a previous campaign, also featuring Pauline Nordin, for AST Sports Science, I set out to prove that you can show women actually training hard with bulging muscles and make it approachable and inspiring for women as well as men without falling in to the “sleeezy sex categorie” and without overexposing the product per sue.

Campaign ad (previous campaign, photo: Pavel Ythjall, art director: Pavel Ythjall & Pixlmix, Copy: Pixlmix) Combined with great copy the ad campaign was a succes and AST Sports Science are getting great sales.

Black and White I am in love with black & white photography (thank Herb Ritts for that) because it’s liberated from the distractions, symbols and interpretations colors bring. Black and white is RAW lifting, no straps no help. Black and white is ultimate fighting, its the ultimate proving ground for your shot. Color distracts, symbolizes just by being in color per sue and can in itself tell a story but black and white takes no prisoners, either you have something to show your audience or not.

Thanks to being so naked it also reads very fast and hits you, if succesful, very fast.

Present campaign
Pauline and I decided to take the ads for Fighter Diet in a new direction and get the ads out off the gym! We, Pauline, I and Pixlmix already proved that we could make a great “gym ad” with our previous campaign. True art and great sales (yes they can be one and the same) are not given to you but a result of risk taking and pushing the boundaries. I will post the finished ads in this post when they are out in the magazines, until then enjoy a behind the scenes movie (movie is being edited, coming shortly).

Pavel

Hair stylist Frank Galasso, not only a hair stylist to the stars and Kim Kardashian, but a bodubuilder!

Frank recently won a bodybuilding competition and we did a shoot.

Frank Galasso.

Frank Galasso and Heidi Von Koi (figure winner at the same competition)

Cover Shoot for Fighter Magazine

This has happened a couple of times. Neither of the times have I had the balls to say “it’s a wrap” but someday… It’s a cover shoot for a European Fighter Magazine. We have spent numerous hours setting up, pre lighting, testing, testing some more, had coffee and then tested everything again. The fighter, Marcus Kowal, walks in, I know him since a previous shoot so we get straight to it. I show him his mark (taped on the floor) and say “- light test”. Marcus, 1 day out from a fight just stands there, literally with “the eye of the tiger”, staring at me. I barely focus, I just wanna see how the lights hits him. Click. We watch it together on the monitor. It’s awesome! That’s the shot!

A more brave version of me would be uber cool and say “that’s a wrap”. That would have been the stuff off legends! But I didn’t, instead I insisted we shoot 50 more exposures that all faded in comparison. Finally, I resorted to taking a “fight pose”, I know this will always work and it did but guess what shot made the cover…

A couple of weeks ago this happened again and I had the chance to say “that’s a wrap” and I sort off did (silently) because with clients around it would have been a hard sell to shut down the shoot after 1 exposure. But one day, I also, will make the stuff of legends!

This is the “safe shot” I took after all the others that faded in comparison to the “light test”.