July 7th, 2009 § § permalink
I was on location in Bournemouth at 6:00AM last Sunday (ouch) for the 2009 running of the Bournemouth International Triathlon; on assignment for Triathlete’s World Magazine. The first wave (Sprint Distance) set off at 6:30AM with the Standard Distance competitors setting off from 7:00AM. The weather conditions were cold and the sea was choppy but apart from a few very light showers it remained dry and the weather improved throughout the morning. First man home in the Sprint Distance was Stephen Barratt (Team Durham Primera) at 1:05:21 and first woman was Holly Lawrence (Swansea Uni) at 1:09:12. Full Distance men’s winner was James Gilfillan (Primera) at 1:54:47, and first woman was Tracy Cook (Tri UK) at 2:13:02. Look out for the photos illustrating the full race report in the October issue.
February 22nd, 2009 § § permalink
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.
January 14th, 2009 § § permalink
I met up with Paul from the Plymouth Tri Club last Sunday for a series of images that I’m currently working on featuring local triathletes; location portraits which hopefully capture the personality and dynamics of both the individual athletes and the sport itself. We got to the location about an hour and a half before sunset to capture the last light of the day, and it’s the dead of Winter with a howling gale blowing in straight off the sea; Paul was a legend, going back into the sea on command several times and never once complaining while my assistant clung on to the lightstand for dear life as the wind continued to batter us. We got the shots wrapped up as soon as possible and we were really lucky with the sun which was just starting to poke through the clouds as we finished setting up; I was a little concerned as it was looking like the backlight might become too hard and bright ruining the soft overcast light that I wanted, but then it turned into this beautiful hazy golden yellow that you can see in the images, which lasted just as long as the shoot and had disappeared entirely by the time we packed up.
