Photo shoots rarely work out exactly like planned, regardless of the groundwork put in, but that’s not a bad thing; often opportunities arise that are far better, and the trick is to be able to work around those challenges and roll with whatever comes your way. That was the case this week when I shot local triathlete Heather Booth of Plymouth Tri Club; it was the usual deal of trying to fit in the shoot around the subject’s busy schedule but we eventually arranged to meet early one morning at Heather’s local swimming pool where she trains several times a week. Everything was arranged with the pool beforehand but on arrival the duty manager vetoed the whole thing; I tried to talk my way around it (after all, they’d already told me there wouldn’t be a problem), but I was clearly wasting my breath so politely thanked them and focused on re-scheduling with the subject. So Heather makes some phone calls and within a few minutes she’s secured us a new location; a secret training bunker on a private compound on the edge of Dartmoor National Park; a two lane 50 metre training pool built for the owner’s son who’s competing in the next Olympics! We had the whole place to ourselves, and it has this cool industrial feel to it so we set-up some lights and started out with some very simply lit portraits of Heather training in the pool for a paired down natural style, and then grabbed a few frames poolside for a completely different look.
