The TOPhotoGuy Story, an Autobiography by Mike Sheehan. All characters in this story are based on actual people. Only the dates are questionable to protect myself. All rights to this story belong to Mike Sheehan (the TOPhotoGuy) and his family. Heaven forbid I die in the next year. :) The story begins, It all began in a little 5,000 watt radio station outside of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. No, wait, that's Ted Baxter. ;) Actualllllllly, It all began in East York, Ontario, Canada. The year was 1952. I remember it well. No, wait, I don't. Anyways......... I guess my first contact of women's bodybuilding came the year, a brash young photographer attended something called the Ms Olympia, in Atlantic City. I believe Rachel McLish won that contest (however, I don't want to get into a rant, I could be wrong - Dennis Miller). A very muscular black woman named Carla Dunlap also placed well in that show. I shot about 48 photos of the contest that day. God, I wish I still had the negs. A few years later I attended another Olympia. Don't remember much about that one though. I started going to local BB shows in Ontario and taking pictures of the women, mostly. Not that there's anything wrong with that - Jerry Seinfeld. I joined Vic Tanny's gym in Scarborough, Ontario, when I was 20 something. I remember I was really thin at the time (believe it or not), and I had aspirations of some day getting on stage myself and winning a trophy. The first really unusually athletic woman I actually spoke to was a girl named Ilyena Vajackas(sp). At the time, all of the women trained upstairs at Vic Tanny's. Downstairs, where they kept the free weights, was pretty much strictly a male domain. For several months I worked out a Vic Tanny's. My typical workout then was about 30 minutes upstairs doing cardio and working on the Nautilus machines. At the end of my workout I would go downstairs to do a couple of sets with the free weights, where the "real men" worked out. At first, I thought this muscular blond woman was wierd. After all, the free weights were "just for men". But oh my good, she was a real looker. She was also unusually strong. After about a month of watching her workout, I finally got up the nerve to talk to her. We had a pleasant conversation and I found out she wasn't the freak I originally thought she was. Unfortunately, for me, I also discovered she was married and her husband was employed as a bouncer in a local bar. That ended any romantic notions, with this woman. But I think that's when I got hooked on the benefits of women's bodybuilding to women (improved health) and for men (produces potential beauty contestants). I became good friend with the couple and they let me take a few photos of Iylena in the gym. The last time I saw her was in Hamilton, Ontario. In return for letting me shoot Iylena in the gym I had promised to shoot her husband at a regional/national contest on stage. Several months later, there was a story written about Ilyena, in Macleans magazine. The story was written by a woman and I think there were about 3 photos in it. That story, for me, marked the beginning of Women's bodybuilding, in Canada. Anyways........ I continued to attend local shows, shooting about 3 rolls of film, at each contest. At the time, Bob Kennedy (the owner and publisher of MuscleMag International), was/is the Canadian voice of bodybuilding to the world. I had aspirations of some day having my photos published in MuscleMag. However........Bob got most of his photos, at that time, from a clerk he hired to work partime in his store downtown and part time as a staff photographer. The clerk's name was Chris Lund. I learned he was English and he had a young wife. I spent a lot of weekends downtown in that store, where Chris displayed a lot of 8 X 10 black and white prints on the wall. Chris shot about 90 per cent of his film, on the male BBs. I'm not sure, but I think Bob was against the idea of posting photos of muscular women, in his store. I still had aspirations of becoming a published photographer and I showed Chris some of my work. He dismissed me as a wannabe photographer, though. In the 80's I attended my first Canada contest. I was determined to get a photograph of a Canadian woman bodybuilder that someone would publish in a magazine. I subscribed to an American publication, called Woman's Physique Publication. I had met Bill Jentz and Steve Wennerstrom when I had been in Atlantic City and they seemed like decent guys. I bought some prints of several 80's women bodybuilder from WPP. Janice Ragain was my favorite. I also discussed the possibility of getting a photo credit in WPP. Bill Jentz, gave me his business card, and told me to shoot the Canada's, and then send the photos to him. If he liked what he saw he agreed to publish one or two photos in WPP. After I shot the contest, we negotiated a price. He published two of my photos on the back cover of an 80's WPP. I got $50, for those two photos and my Canada negatives. Wennerstrom returned the negatives to me around 1995. One of the photos was of Holly Buss, the Canadian lightweight champion that year. Look it up, if you like. I continued to attend just about every show I could get to, by car. I developed a good working relationship with the local promoters and the president of the Ontario bodybuilding federation. At the time, a young woman named Laura Creavalle was a crowd favorite in Ontario. I think I have an old color 8 X 10 of her at an Ontario contest, kicking around somewhere in my apartment. Early in the 90's the Ontario BB federation held a photography contest. I was looking for a promising contestant to use as the subject for my entry. My entry in that photo contest was an outdoor shot of a young woman named Laura Binetti. She did a side triceps shot that I captured on film and submitted as my entry in the photo contest. I got second place for that photo and was awarded a placque (I think) at the Ontario contest that year. Being published in WPP, and getting an award on stage for your work, was pretty heady stuff for me. So, I decided my next project would be to try my hand at photo journalism. I decided to attempt to get some publicity for Laura Binetti, and an author's credit for myself. I mailed her a 6 page questionnaire and asked her to reply in an honest, but entertaining way. She filled in the questionnaire promptly and mailed it back to me. After reading over her replies, I believed Laura was very marketable. At the time, she had won the Ontario provincial championships and I thought she deserved some publicity. I did a photo shoot with her at a local gym and she signed a model release for me (I think). While I was pondering which of 4 magazines to send my article and the accompanying gym photos to, Bob Kennedy and his crew moved in, did a photo shoot with Laura and published the whole thing in MuscleMag. I realized as soon as I heard that Musclemag was shooting Laura, none of the other magazines would touch my article and the photos, in my mind, at the time, were worthless. My first attempt at becoming a bodybuilding photojournalist was a miserable failure. more to come..... if anyone's interested.