Muscle Beach

[JonS]

Lisa came down from Fairbanks to shoot with me. I was a little afraid of the weather, it was high 40's - low 50's with intermittent hail and rain, but to her it was positively tropical.

She's 4'11", 100.8 pounds, and a 42 year old mother of three and grandmother of two.

You're never too old.

[ukanfoff]

me thinks u didnt have a lens hood on...
i think the background is very boring for the main subject.
nice subject though.

[bloop?]

The pose is contrived and the light is artificial; but that doesn't bother me, I like it.

The figure reminds me alot of michelangelo's frescoes, and I think you could play on that. I only wish the light was higher, as if it was something beaming down on her - jesus rays - would make the image into something almost religious. If you really wanted to carry on with the melodrama you could have her grasping out to sea, into the sky. The fundamental parts of nature generally connote god. She looks as if she's interacting with something just out of frame, and when we look to see what it is the only clue is that it's made of unearthly white light. Or maybe I'm misreading, you tell me.

If these were from a paid assignment, then her purpose for taking them is to document the pride she has in her body and within herself. In which case I think you need to make it appear more natural.
You could try using softer light and colour correcting it. Just so it doesn't appear so out of place.
It also irritates me that the hand blocks the light to her face, having it in shadow makes it less important to the image and thus dehumanises her. Reminds me of the way you would shoot a car, a product shoot; it objectifies her.
I would normally say for photos used for showing pride it is often better to make them pose in a slightly more humble way, but in the case of a body builder where you are trying to show off the muscle, a pose like this is unavoidable. In which case I think you need to make a nod to the silliness of the pose, just so it doesn't give off an air of pretention. Get her to smile, giggle or something while she's holding the pose.

...as i said, i like the image, but despite my longwinded beration their are only a few tweaks to make perfect.

Colin