Shooting a training session can be a tough task. The lighting isn’t great. There’s mirrors everywhere. Gyms are kinda ugly. Plus, your subjects spend most of the time straining, sweating and being uncomfortable. Needless to say, it’s not an ideal situation for a photographer.
But a job is a job, and photographers should aim to do their best.
Personal trainer Bo Stansell hired me to take some photos during two half-hour sessions with some of his clients. He needed some shots for his website.
My approach was to treat it like a documentary, and not interfere too much with what normally goes on during a session. To keep things simple, I showed up with a camera and three lenses, and nothing more. My camera was a Fujifilm X-T1, and the lenses were the Fujinon 16mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4 and the 60mm f/2.4.
I tried to focus my attention on Bo’s interaction with his clients, so, often I got on the floor to approximate their point of view. Naturally, as there was a lot of movement, I shot at faster shutter speeds and kept my camera firing at a handful of frames per second, to capture the nuance of the motions and expressions.
The mixed lighting of the natural light coming through the windows and the artificial lights inside the gym presented a challenge, but I managed to find a happy medium while editing and color grading the photos. The result is a very cool color temperature, but I feel that it’s a good match for the steel and cement adorning the scene.
Overall, a fun session, and it was over in an hour, which is always a plus.
