Gabriella was in town to compete at the IFBB Texas Pro and reached out about fitting in a session while she was here — and I'm glad she did. She's an IFBB pro in the Figure division, and she arrived that weekend in top condition.
We shot at Murrell Park on Grapevine Lake on a bright, sunny August day. Gabriella had done photo shoots before, but never outdoors — no studio walls, no controlled light, just sun, water, red rock, and a Texas lake breeze. She took to it right away. The images below are the ones she picked to be edited — her favorites from the day.
Her First Outdoor Session
Studio shoots are predictable. Outdoors, you get what the day gives you — and that day gave us wind. Plenty of it. But wind at the lake isn't a problem to fix; it's movement, it's energy, it's life in the frame. We worked with it instead of against it, moving along the shoreline from the red rock ledges down into the water.
For someone who had never shot outside, Gabriella was a natural. She knows her physique, she hits her poses, and she trusted the process even when the breeze had other ideas.
The cowboy hat was non-negotiable.
Three Looks, One Shoreline
We kept the wardrobe simple and let the location do the heavy lifting: a cowboy hat and denim shorts to start, a black lace one-piece against the rock wall, and a sage bikini for the water. Each look changed the mood — western, powerful, relaxed — without ever changing the backdrop.
That's the advantage of a place like Murrell Park. Rock ledges, woods, and open shoreline all sit within a short walk of each other, so one session can feel like three.
The black lace look — the stance says everything.
Into the water for the last look.
That smile is how the day went.
Show Weekend, Done Right
Gabriella stepped on stage that weekend in the kind of condition that makes a photographer's job easy — every frame showed the work she had put in. After the session she went through the proofs and picked her favorites herself, and her eye for her own best angles made the final set stronger.
Gabriella — thank you for trusting me with your first outdoor session. Here's hoping the Texas Pro brings you back next year, and we get to do it all again.
If you're a competitor coming to Texas for a show — or you're local and want an outdoor session like this one — I'd love to plan it with you.