Recently Ian Spencer Photo had the pleasure of photographing Michael (a fitness model for Australia’s Elite Fitness Models) in Leo Berry’s Boxing gym, an iconic gym in the heart of Richmond, Melbourne.

Leo Berry’s original gym (behind the Richmond baths) was started in 1956 as a community base for local school groups, sports organizations and members of the public to be able to train for boxing or weights or both.

fitness photography Melbourne and Sydney

Leo Berry’s Gym was especially renown for encouraging disadvantaged youth to come and train.

After many years the Gym was relocated to its present site in Richmond and has become an iconic location not only for locals and youths from surrounding schools and athletic clubs but also for some of Melbourne’s best known boxers, footballers and even politicians.

It was an honor and a pleasure to be able to take my fitness photography to a new place and shoot in Leo’s Gym. The interior is incredible! I felt like we had stepped straight onto the set of a major production 1950’s boxing movie. So much atmosphere.

Capturing interesting backgrounds was easy, the hard part was deciding what not to include.

fitness photography melbourne

I wanted to let my photography tell the story of this iconic place yet not lose track of the main goal, which was to capture great photos of the model (Michael) that show off his physique and great looks.

In keeping with my nostalgic idea of the of the location I decided I wanted a somewhat dark mood for the photographs. Almost as though Michael had just stepped back in time to a long forgotten era, no ceiling lights, just window light and of course my flash.

To achieve this I made sure there was plenty of fall of behind the model so that the backgrounds would stay as dark as I wanted, I controlled this by ensuring my flash was over powering my ambient light and also by adjusting my shutter speed as necessary. A good example of this is here in this next photo:

fitness photography melbourne

The plan was to capture a variety of shots which will give Michael a great start to his modelling future. I was really happy with the results and without a doubt would love to do a fitness photography session there again sometime.

I wish Michael good luck with his modelling career and you can see the rest of the photos and more of my fitness photography on my home page here at Ian Spencer Photo and Michael’s portfolio on Australian Elite Fitness Models

(sadly Leo Berry passed away a couple of weeks after this photo shoot. My heartfelt thoughts are with the family.
Everyone I dealt with was extremely helpful and I couldn’t have asked for more)

fitness photography melbourne/ Leo Berry’s Gym

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Melbourne Boxing Gym: Old School