This week I was lucky to be asked to shoot the amazing Svetlana launch the latest Les Mills Body Attack release. Svetlana is an amazing athlete, cross fitter, Les Mills presenter and fitness instructor. Watching her in action is amazing - strength, agility, super hard work, all while keeping her participants motivated and pushing passed their edge.

The shoot took place at Virgin Active gym in Collins St. A huge premium gym with immaculate facilities. The shoot took place in the early evening.

This was a technical challenge. There was not a lot of available light, and the lights in the studio cycled at a frequency that can send bands of light and dark through all the shots. This could normally be compensated with a flash, but this would not be safe for the class participants. All the shots were taken with a relatively high ISO 2000, but not much higher to keep the images relatively sharp and avoid too much loss of detail. Shutter speed was 1/250 to try to freeze motion, with F2.8 to try and let as much light in as possible.

Adding to that trying to get some good shots off with participants running, jumping, lunging, and trying not have the photographer in the mirror (!!) meant constantly moving around the room looking for angles and lines of sight.

A fair amount of editing in Lightroom after the shoot was used to maximise the light on Svetlana and bring the exposure in all the backgrounds back a little. This helps to draw the eye to her and make her pop us much as possible in the images.

A big challenge with some compromises made in settings, but I managed to get a few good shots that I'm sure she will be happy with!