What an epic shoot. I think I am never ever organising such an insane shoot again! Not that it wasn't fun, but I've learnt my lesson - too many people to shoot in one day. We had 13 ladies booked and we ended up taking 12 hours to do the whole thing from leave in the morning to setup the set, and then shoot everybody and then go home. And then the editing! I think I've been editing for ever!

I have also been educated in many of the finer technical aspects of Chinese Pole, aerial acrobatics let me tell you. Don't be fooled, these pictures look effortless but the ladies were working really hard to pull them off and there was a lot of sweat and chalk was being applied liberally to thighs and hands. Having the gym instructor barking instructions at the ladies was also funny as they corrected the poses to show the correct technical aspects.

What Pole Gym is NOT is the sort of pole dancing you might see in a strip club. It is actually nothing to do with that at all. It is actually the acrobatic extension of gymnastics rope, silks and aerial hoop work. This can be frustrating for people to understand.

I have shown two types of photos below. Some are the technical pole positions - I haven't attempted to name them for fear of getting them wrong, the have names like superman, hanging basket, scorpion etc. There are also some acrobatic poses using a chair as a prop. Secondly i have included some of the portrait style photos we produced for most of the ladies.

I was also excited to have one of the ladies produce large scale mounted images for her wall at home.