Glamorous! 2012 Power & Grace Calendar Shoot

What a day!

Today was the big day–the massive single-day photo shoot effort that is going to create all the imagery for the 2012 edition of the US Women’s Rowing calendar. In case you missed it last year, we sold a 12-month 2011 calendar as a fundraiser for US Training Center athletes. The calendar was created to showcase female rowers as both powerful athletes and also as beautiful women through crossover imagery and juxtaposition of traditional “feminine” ideals in an athletic setting. In just a few weeks, we sold out our 2011 calendar. It was our first shot at the project, and we learned a lot. This year, we’re making the project bigger, better, bolder, sexier and more FUN!

Our first new venture for the 2012 project is working with a different photographer. We hired Jordan Matter to make us look fabulous both on and off the water. His experience, creativity and enthusiasm was a good fit for our group–he was able to give us the strong direction we needed in order to bring out our inner super-models and make us look great! I was so impressed with how strong and sexy my teammates looked during our shoot today.

But looking fierce couldn’t have happened without the help of BB Color Studio and Clinique, who provided us with hair and makeup for the shoot. They handled our Team’s many different looks and styles with ease, and made us shine!

Our day started with a photo shoot at dawn (launch at 5:00am…ouch), during which we had all of the US athletes out in an 8+, 1Xs, 2Xs and 4Xs to collect a variety of shots on the water. We scored big time with a fantastic red sunrise that looked incredible as a backdrop to our armada as we cruised up and down the lake.
By 8:00am, we were transitioning to studio, starting the primping and getting the glamor shots locked down! Our long day was made considerably more tolerable thanks to amazing catering provided by our favorite downtown eatery: Olives! We had breakfast sandwiches and burritos, yogurt, fruit, and granola for breakfast, and then a huge variety of their awesome deli sandwiches and salads for lunch. They absolutely killed it, and provided us with some much-needed fuel today. Thank you Olives!!

It’s been a long day for me, and I’m beat. But I am so excited to see how everyone’s photos are going to turn out, and for the calendar to start coming together! Thank you again to all of our sponsors and supporters for today, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Without further ado, check out the video I took at today’s shoot: