Muscle Model Industry Awards

It's now official: We have the results for the first annual Muscle Model Industry Awards.

Members of the commercial paysite industry voted for their peers and favorite models in a variety of categories as follows.

Favorite Photographer for 2010: No surprise that GeneX won hands down in this one, grabbing over twice as many votes as the next closest shooter. For my money, Gene is the best in the business and produces some of the most creative work around.

Brian Moss finished a distant second with a comfortable lead over third-place Dan Ray.

Giving Dan his kudos, he is one of the busier shooters I know. He pumps out great work covering the shows and shooting the competitors off stage.

Favorite Videographer for 2010: Steve Scibelli in a landslide garnering three times as many votes as the runner-up.

Similar to GeneX, Steve displays great creativity in the work he produces. A well deserving first choice.

Runner-up went to James Cook, another great shooter. Not only is James great with the video, but he puts out some impressive still work to boot.

In third just slightly behind James, we had our first tie with newcomer Annie Riviecco and old pro Joe Bayer.

Not only does Annie look better than the other winners do, but also she brings a unique perspective to shooting based on her extensive experience in front of the camera.

Joe is another one that produces great work. He brings a very strong background in video and extensive tech knowhow to the table and it shows in his production quality.

Favorite Commercial Multi-Model Site for 2010: Finishing comfortably at the top in a first-place tie, Muscle Angels and FT Video. Awefilms was not too far behind followed by HD Physiques.

Favorite Commercial Single-Model Site for 2010: This category received the fewest amount of votes with a number of the voters stating that they simply did not follow single-model sites. Separated by just a single vote for each spot, first went to All Natural KO, second to Tanya Fitness and third to BrandiMae.

Favorite Non-Commercial Site/Forum/Blog for 2010: By a large margin, the favorite here was Unreal Muscle. Separated by a single vote, next came Amaz0ns.com and AMG-Lite.

These results surprised me in that I really expected more votes for AMG-Lite. As AMG promotes most every site in business as well as many models, I expected them to garner more votes particularly considering the voters all come from the very industry AMG supports.

Favorite Model of the Year for 2010: This is where things went crazy with 21 different models receiving votes. Of course when you realize the variety of models the different producers work with, it simply mirrors what you see on the sites.

Leading the pack was Katka Kpytova. Tied for second one vote behind came Aleesha Young and Julie Bourassa. One vote behind them and locked in another tie, KO and Alina Popa. After that, a logjam.

Model I Would Most Like to Work with in 2011: Another one with votes everywhere as 20 models made an appearance. Leading the pack, buff newcomer Erica Cordie. Making another second-place appearance just one vote behind Erica, Aleesha Young. Katka Kyptova tied Aleesha followed by Alina Popa. Behind her, another logjam.

This one surprised me not because Erica won - she was one of my choices - but because I thought she was a bit more under the radar. Apparently not.

Having met Erica once, I can definitely say she has great presence, not to mention some kick-ass biceps. I'm looking forward to more Erica in 2011.

Besides the above names in both categories, a couple others who received double support included KO, Erica Cordie Lisa Giesbrecht and Julie Bourassa.

From the perspective of a model, if you're on either list that means you're in demand and producers want to work with you. Even better if you made both lists.

Favorite Show of 2010: The Olympia led the way followed by The Arnold and then USA's in Vegas.

Show I'm Most Looking Forward to in 2011: Obviously, the producers like Vegas as it made its third appearance on the show list with the Olympia being the event everyone is most looking forward to attending. Next, Nationals in Florida and then The Arnold.

The final category was more of an open-ended one with producers asked what they felt was the biggest threat to the industry in 2011. Hands down, piracy appeared as the big concern.

This is a small industry and it doesn't take much to make an impact. The damage done by pirates sends ripples throughout the industry. Producers can't put out as much content as they would like. Models make less money and have fewer opportunities to shoot. New models have a tougher time getting shoots because producers sometimes don't want to take a chance working with them. The pirates are definitely damaging the industry.

A variety of other concerns came up from lack of support for female bodybuilding to the overzealous use of Photoshop to poor production values.

It all adds up to an interesting 2011.