Reflecting on Southampton Runners Project - Delays and Endurance
Updated: Apr 24, 2025
After finalising my idea to photograph runners around Southampton, I looked around for running clubs that I could reach out to and request permission to document their community. I found a running club called Solent Running Sisters that is a running club “running club specifically for women” (Solent Running Sisters 2025). After initially reaching out via their website, I received a positive response informing me that they were interested and would like more information. Unfortunately, there was a pause in communication as e-mails would not be received by either end. After this, the project was stuck behind committee meetings to ensure everyone was happy to be involved. This caused major setbacks for my project that led me to start preparing back up ideas. This also meant that my plan to do many shoots started to fall apart because of the setbacks.
Fortunately, these issues were sorted out and I finally planned in days to do my shoots. On the first day, I. was running late as a result of a meeting which led me to miss the group and result in no photos from that day. However, whilst not being able to take photos, I took the time to finalise my plans and gather an idea of the lighting I would be working with and potential challenges which would become important.
The second day, I arrived early to meet the group and explain the project and make sure they were happy to be photographed. This shoot was physically and technically challenging, requiring me to run 5 miles with the equipment to follow the group. However, throughout the journey, I felt I captured the community and togetherness of the group. Always sticking with each other and supporting them throughout the journey until the end. This was immensely challenging for myself as the equipment I carried was heavy and required me to think about the shoot in an entirely new aspect in terms of physicality not just technicality.
The fading light towards the end of the evening required more focus and precision on my end as I had to keep up with the group whilst managing my settings to expose for the light. I had brought a flash along with me, however, as we were on public roads I felt it was unsafe to use it whilst cars were present. This meant I had to push the ISO higher, creating more digital noise in addition to opening the aperture and lowering shutter speed. I was aware of the potential issues when changing these settings as following the exposure triangle “aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are the primary variables of the camera triangle that control exposure. However, each variable also affects other qualities of an image” (Studio Binder 2025), a lower shutter speed can create more motion blur and a lower f-stop can both produce shallower depth of field but also limit the focus area creating softer images that have reduced clarity.
When planning for my shoots, I used the David Hurn ‘Five Picture Method’ to plan what photos I wanted to capture, reflecting on the concepts of how to tell a narrative through photographs. The picture method looks at trends within photographic series that helps to convey a narrative clearly. What he found is that a photographic series should have five types of photos: an establishing picture, a relationship picture, a set-up picture, a person working picture and a close up (Davies 2023). I used this for my project, planning on what I could capture for each of the pictures.
On my next shoot, I wanted to go back to my initial plan incorporate flash photography in my project. As my last shoot took place more in public roads than I anticipated, I used this as an opportunity to experiment in a safer environment. This time I met up with the same club but a different group and positioned myself inside of an underpass, waiting for the runners to run past and use the flash to help expose them and produce a different style of picture with more contrast between the subjects and the backgrounds. I did have trouble using the flash however as the through-the-lens (TTL) mode occasionally would not provide the picture I expected, resulting in me not using it at first until I sorted the problem. When I did use it, it produced the picture I intended, albeit the autofocus on the camera missing the primary subject I wanted. I also used the flash on both days to get a group photo on both shoots.
In addition to the Solent Running Sisters, I also went to a Southampton Parkrun event as well as the Southampton Marathon to capture some pictures there was well and explore the communities within them as well. There was an overlap of all three of these things as some of the Solent Running Sisters took place in the Parkrun in addition to the Marathon and are part of a community called the ‘Vegan Runners’. This was an interesting discovery in the process as it demonstrates the integration of runners in Southampton, I initially set out to look for with overlapping communities supporting people.
I am satisfied with the results of my shoots, experimenting with the camera settings to produce the pictures I got despite the setbacks I encountered and had to adjust my plans and scope of my project as a result of limited time with the community. I have begun to plan the presentation of my project, thinking about the photos I want to use and how to tell a story with them.
Bibliography
DAVIES, A., 2023. The best documentary photography course in the world? In: Amateur Photographer. -11-09 [viewed Apr 23, 2025]. Available from: https://amateurphotographer.com/latest/photo-news/50-years-documentary-photography-course-at-newport-and-usw/
SOLENT RUNNING SISTERS, 2025. About [viewed Apr 23 2025]. Available from: https://www.solentrunningsisters.co.uk
STUDIO BINDER, 2025. What is the Exposure Triangle? A Beginner's Guide [viewed Apr 23 2025]. Available from: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-exposure-triangle-explained/
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