I had the privilege of attending the 2017 IFBB Arctic Pro / NPC Arctic Muscle Fest competition in Anchorage, Alaska a couple weeks ago. My Daughter-in-Law competed in and won overall in the Figure Class, we were all so proud! As for myself, after spending the past 7 months working with a trainer and nutritionist, she was truly inspirational! From Alaska, I had to follow-on to Greece for a 3 week hitch at work, where I will be until July 20th.

Photo wise, I had a great seat at the competition and was able to sit in a location and vantage point to the stage where my 200 F/2 filled the frame when the competitors were on stage, so I was thrilled with most of the images I was able to capture from there.

I also really wanted to take full advantage of catching Janee at the peak of her training, hard work and prep, so we decided to do a post competition photo shoot. I scouted out a great location for a true Alaskan themed shoot, Matanuska Glacier... After hiking around for a few hours on Friday, I found a great location near the ice falls, which if you hiked directly to, took about 35-40 minutes. OK.. all set... 

Following her competition on Saturday we headed out to Matanuska Glacier late Sunday morning. Fortunately, Sunday turned out to be one of the nicest weather days in a while with the temperature around 70*. 
After arriving at the glacier, we set out with 3 large backpacks full of studio lights and camera gear for the .86 mile, 40 minute hike. Almost there..
We were about 100 feet from arriving at the ice falls when my model stepped into what she thought was a small puddle.. not so.. up to her neck into the freezing cold glacier water she went.. I can still picture the look on her face.. I know, not funny then, but hilarious now! She was wet from head to toe!!
Even though the air temperature was around 70*, the surrounding ice made everything much cooler and the breeze didn't help any either. Now at this point, what any loving father-in-law should do is turn around and head back out.. but hey, there were still photos to capture.. Honestly, she insisted she was ok for a little while.. So after handing over my jacket and a quick change of shoes, I worked as fast as I could to get the light stands and strobes set up.. It wasn't long though before she started feeling the effects of the cold, so I think we spent maybe 15-20 minutes shooting. Then as quickly as possible, we got everything packed back up and began the trek out. On the return trip, only wearing tennis shoes and having to take each step much more carefully, we made it out without any further excitement.

What a trooper!! Long story short, even though I never really got the lights firing right where they should be, I got some really good images and finally starting to edit.

Thank you Janee! First of all being an inspiration, you were amazing! But also for being a real trooper through the adversity of a cold swim and going on with the shoot! I'll do my best to do your photos justice! 

Much love!