The Hall School: Cross Country Running

This month I had a lovely commission from The Hall School to photograph their annual cross country running events which has been a long-standing fixture in their school calendar.  Held across two separate days, boys from their middle and upper school took part. 

The location of Parliament Hill at Hampstead Heath, lent itself to a beautiful backdrop, even if it meant it was fairly hilly for the boys (and myself!) to be running on. 

As a keen runner myself, who fortunately was training for Manchester marathon at the time, I felt in my element being able to run around outside and take photos! 

With a fairly open brief to capture the events, my main challenge was to produce a wide and diverse set of imagery that told the story of each afternoon. This meant capturing images from the build-up to each race, the race itself as well as the celebrations afterwards. 

Having to work quickly was key, as was being able to reflect on the images I was taking throughout the course of the afternoon. This meant I was continuously challenging myself to find new angles and perspectives to capture the action. 

The events seemed to be a great success with all the boys completing the run, and the inner runner in me was happy to hear I had impressed the P.E staff with my ‘niftiness and willingness to move around’! 

Fortunately, my next commission for them in May combines my other passion for music and will involve less running about!