M2O Industries approached me about photographing some marketing images for their compression socks and if I knew any trail runners.  They wanted a female runner and originally suggested using a model agency but my advice was to find an actual runner who races as would have a better result for a number of reasons.  Runners are not just thin but are strong and have good running technique plus I suggested a local runner would also have more connect with other runners sharing about the shoot, product and resulting images. 

  When it came to finding locations to shoot I wanted to play on the companies name a little and shoot everything from the mountains to the ocean as trail runners go anywhere and having a nice mix would let them market to any type of runner. 

  I spent a day scouting locations, most of them I already was familiar with but I don’t like to chance it without checking an area is still visually appealing.  Some area were fire affected or my last visit was in a different season and now not very lush with vegetation.  Preparation is key to these types of jobs, saving time and energy for the athlete as well as myself. 

  After working out my locations and creating a shot list of desired styles the athlete and I found a free day in our schedules and got to work.  We had to shift the shoot once due to weather but that is pretty normal.  We broke the shoot into two days, one was for the photo stills the other was for video content the client wanted for future works. 

  Final images were loaded to the clients private gallery and they got to choose their 10 selects based on their needs and marketing strategy.  I always over deliver on this and provide more than asked for as giving just 10 when I have more on hand is limiting.  I find it better to put 30 images in the gallery and let the client decide which images work best for them.