Nashville-based photographer Adair Rutledge recently moved to Seattle and was looking for a way to get to know the local creative community. She thought a high-production value test shoot would be a great way to start gathering local resources to build a great team in her new home. A casual runner herself, Adair found that she couldn’t always relate to activewear advertising, where campaigns sometimes feature unrealistic models. Adair wanted to create a story around a group of strong, dedicated runners. The goal was to show the different physical and emotional aspects of training. She wanted to explore the camaraderie and fun of training, as well as the intense, quieter moments.
Adair wanted to take her styling in a new direction by using a fresh, new color palette. When one of Adair’s photo assistants recommended stylist Gretchen Bell, Adair was sold. Gretchen had been a producer before moving into styling and was a great asset in putting all the pieces together. Gretchen decided to use clothing from Alo, Under Armour, Nike, and several other brands.
Adair’s work typically incorporates punchy, saturated color throughout the whole picture. To mix things up for this shoot, Adair scouted locations with more subdued tones to pair with a sophisticated wardrobe. She accomplished this by incorporating her fun-colored running outfits with neutral backgrounds like white, gray, and rusty tones. Moreover, Adair and Gretchen found models for this project through Sports and Lifestyle Unlimited Agency (SLU), an agency in Portland OR, that specializes in athletic talent.
Adair’s work typically incorporates bold, saturated colors throughout the image. To mix things up for this shoot, Adair also scouted locations with more subdued tones to pair with a sophisticated wardrobe. She accomplished this by pairing her fun, colorful running outfits with neutral backgrounds such as white, gray, and rusty tones. Adair and Gretchen found models for this project through Sports and Lifestyle Unlimited Agency (SLU), a Portland OR agency that specializes in athletic talent.
All of our models were either professional athletes or at least ran track in collage, so that brought a lot of authenticity to the project. Running 30 consecutive sets of stadium stairs was no biggie for them!
Adair did a lot of location scouting during pre-production. She created an ambitious shot list for a one-day shoot. It was important to have locations in close proximity to each other. She also found great running routes where she could get wider shots without crowds.
In the Pacific Northwest, the weather is always a wild card. The day of the shoot was supposed to be warm and sunny. But, it turned out to be drizzly and cold.
Adair spent part of the morning in a shelter. However, she was still able to capture good material by staging the lighting with her equipment.
I was able to fake good weather if I needed it for the shot, and a lot of my images were actually artificially lit. As for the goosebumps… I had to spend a little extra time retouching.
Adair has already included some of this project in her portfolio and so far people have responded well. With a great team working in sync, Adair was able to make the shoot run smoothly, which made the day a lot of fun. In the future, Adair looks forward to bridging the gap between her documentary projects and her more commercial lifestyle work.
See more from Adair’s work on his website.
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