Super Bennie Westwood’s Calendar 2014

Calendar Cover

Well the cat's finally been let out of the bag now, as its been announced and is now on sale !!! So I can now blog about it......

Earlier this year I was asked to get involved in a project which I had to keep secret (well secret-ish). Bennie, who has been a good friend for quite some time now, asked me to do the photography for the production of his Testimonial Calendar. When I say "he asked", more like I was told and I had no other option to do it !! (Damn you Debbie Hudson!).

For some reason in the Rugby League World, the players can't wait to get their kit off. The mere mention of the word calendar to one of them and they've stripped off before you've had a chance to ask them to pose for it!! Bennie wanted something different with this calendar, he wanted the nakedness ..... just not with the usual white backgrounds or photoshop'd images. Normally we'd do these shoots in a studio where it's nice and private (and warm!), this time we had no such privileges. Bennie had done a deal with the sponsors for each month of the calendar to have the images taken at their place of work - Nice one Bennie! To make matters worse, we would only have one hour or so to get set up and take the shot. I think it was fair to say no matter how much background research we did on the Sponsors, the locations and types of shot we'd expect, we really only had a short time slot to really prepare - usually just before the player got naked!

Emma Bryan (Hattie Boo Designs - www.hattieboodesigns.co.uk) and myself spent the best part of the last 3 months running around various locations in and around Warrington taking the pictures of the players, desperately trying to get the shots required with the best lighting possible, but also protecting the players modesty (some were some done in public view!) and preventing camera phone shots from onlookers getting onto Facebook/Twitter etc.

I think all the hard work and panic has proved it's worth, the calendar is now available to buy from the Warrington Wolves souvenir shop (Wolfware) at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, Calendar Club in the Golden Gates Shopping Centre Warrington. Its also available online from 1895Sports.com

The calendar features 13 of the current Warrington Wolves squad, each of them revealing quite a bit more than what you would normally see on the pitch! It's also a limited edition run, so once it's sold out there won't be anymore being produced.

Thanks to all the Sponsors, Players, Bennie's Testimonial Committee, Warrington Wolves and the man himself Bennie Westwood.

Primary Back Cover Image