2018 Arnold / AO1

For this meet, to increase posting speed, we have skipped most of our normal photo review process. Therefore some photos will be out of focus or not framed correctly as we typically delete those before uploading.

To learn more about our session coverage for this meet, please see the notes section below the download links.

Here are the photos (right-click and then choose “save file as” or “save link as”). See the notes section below if you have any questions:

Rogue Strength Stage:

Red Platform:

White Platform:

Blue Platform:

A couple of other things to note here:

  • We shot photos for relatively few sessions at this meet. There are four primary reasons for this but if you don’t care to read a long paragraph, the short answer is that we don’t find shooting more sessions to be worth it at this meet. The longer reasoning is below.
    1. First, the meet was almost 1000 lifters and took place over 3/4 platforms and we didn’t bring the manpower (peoplepower for any Canadians out there) to shoot this many athletes because there is already an official meet photographer, 99.9% of people don’t buy their media and people typically have someone videoing their lifts on a phone so there’s no real point to duplicating efforts if people don’t buy their photos, people who care about videos already have acceptable-in-their-mind videos for themselves and there are already meet photos being taken. Phone videos at a meet like the Arnold are more acceptable than usual because of the tight quarters. The same phone video at a meet with a big stage has the lifter at about 25% of the size or people have to zoom in way too far and the video quality goes way down. So this makes our videos less useful/interesting which means we shoot less of them.
    2. Second, we didn’t bring many resources because the venue is too small for photos/videos that are up to our normal standards. There’s no way to take really good pictures from close range because of the geometry involved. And as much as possible, we prefer to avoid publishing substandard media although obviously we will do what we need to do in order to get big lifts on video even if things aren’t ideal.
    3. Third, the meet is pretty uncomfortable to shoot because of the tight spaces involved and it’s just generally unpleasant to sit for 12+ hours a day in tight quarters for no real reason.
    4. Fourth, most meets we shoot involve us sitting substantially further back, so our gear investments have been made into lenses and equipment which support shooting from further back. We don’t have much equipment for shooting such wide angles and given that this is the only meet of the year where we sit this close to the platform, it isn’t worth investing thousands of dollars into all the lenses needed to shoot this sort of meet with photos and videos on so many platforms simultaneously.

    So anyway, none of this should be read as us complaining because we have been to the Arnold every year since 2012 and it’s been roughly the same experience most years where two platforms are fit into the main competition area. So we are well aware of what we are getting ourselves into and we come to the meet knowing and accepting what it will be like and we are perfectly fine with it. Expectations were met — we were pleased with the meet, the organizers treated us well and we were glad we attended. But since most people don’t know our thought processes, we are including the information above to explain the coverage level. If you’re wondering why we attend, the reason is that we are there to capture the big lifts because the meet does draw some big names — but otherwise we would probably skip the meet. But if you’re curious about the reasons why there are only 14 sessions with photos, the above reasons are why that’s the case.

  • While we only shot 14 sessions of photos, there are many more sessions of video. Video is substantially more comfortable to shoot in such a tight environment and we aren’t duplicating efforts to the same degree as the photos so it makes the process more attractive for us to invest efforts into. In addition, we use the videos for giveaways on @hookgripstore IG for the ones that will not end up on @hookgrip/@hookgripusa. We shot 26 sessions of video (not 100% of all sessions): Rogue Male, Rogue Female, 53a, 58d, 58c, 58b, 58a, 63c, 63b, 63c, 69a (female), 75a, 90a, +90a, 69b (male), 69a (male), 85g, 85c, 85b, 85a, 94h, 94f, 105b, 105a, +105b, +105a. As you can tell, video was not shot 100% based on session letter as we had a G and H session but several A sessions were missed. This was largely due to conflicts with other sessions or platform preference for us. As an example, 94A/105A/+105A were going on at the same time and we had to choose two — therefore 94A was missed. Video can be purchased here: https://store.hookgrip.com/shop/digital-media/
  • Just repeating the note from above, these files have not been reviewed at all. That means there will definitely be out of focus photos. We wanted to get these online quicker than usual, so we skipped the somewhat timely review process. There also could be photos in the wrong album or similar — if you notice that, please let us know at [email protected].
  • Use a computer to download these, not a phone or tablet.
  • We can’t provide tech support for these files. We’ve tested the files and they’re working for us but we can’t guarantee everything will go smoothly with your computer. If you need support due to technical issues, you can buy your data here: https://store.hookgrip.com/shop/digital-media/. We will be able to provide tech support for purchases.
  • These are big files. Depending on your internet speed, they may take several minutes to download. Be patient. We list the file size next to each zip file.

If you have any other questions not answered above, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].