A running photoshoot

My friend and photographer Richard van Hoek once taught me: ‘Always look for backgrounds. You can control the person in front of it, but never the background’. Whenever I’m in a city, that’s what I do; looking for beautiful backgrounds for a photoshoot. But not just in a city, also in the forest.

To be fair, lately mostly in the forest. In the last couple of years I’ve almost only been shooting yoga pictures. Sure, sometimes during retreats or workshops, but most of my work happens in nature. And most of my work is with Sara Bigatti, as I’m only working for La Scimmia Yoga these days.

Sand dunes

So, what does all of this have to do with running? Everything. Every run I do, I’m looking around me. Are there trees that stand out or blossom? Little rivers that can form a nice background? Heath-lands or sand dunes that create beautiful, calm scenery I can shoot in? And the most important thing, how is the light? Where does it come from? Where are the shadows? Is it playing in between the trees?

Even this morning Sara and I were on a photoshoot run, because today is finally a sunny day. We have Nicola Artico and Vera Bettiol in the film studio this week, to film a beautiful moon-flow yoga course. That means we need pictures for the cover and for social media. So this morning we went out for a run, to do some location spotting in the forest close to our house. I think we found something nice.

Cartierheide

Tomorrow I’ll be on another photoshoot run. I want to go back to the Cartierheide to see if it’s getting green. If so, and if the weather will be okay at the end of this week, we hopefully can fit in another photoshoot.

Related Columns

Sign up for more Training Tips & Tricks

Newsletter signup

Please wait..

Yeah, you signed up! Now, you'll get the best training tips and greatest gear reviews straight in your inbox. The only thing you have to do yourself, is keep on running.

Latest posts

Forty minutes of running, forty minutes of pain

This morning I did forty minutes of running, which meant forty minutes of pain. I start to wonder, can I run the CCC?

Hundreds of runners in the streets of London 

Wherever you look, you see people running in the streets of London It truly is the running capital of the world.

I finally ran my first Parkrun

I did it. I finally ran my first Parkrun. The Storeys Field parkrun in Cambridge, England. Ending a long running gag.

On Cloudsurfer; a soft everyday trainer

ON has made a very comfortable everyday trainer with the ON Cloudsurfer.

Do what you can – The long way back from injury

Six minutes, that's my running this week. 6 minutes divided over 2 sessions. It's a long way back from injury.

My first Did Not Start

One more week and I will have my first Did Not Start behind my name. I already have a DNF, but this DNS feels worse.
Training