Creative Gym Photography – VR Leisure

Recently I completed a shoot in the spectacular VR Leisure gym in Sheffield. The brief was simple: create some amazing, creative shots for the gym’s advertising and marketing material for when the gyms finally reopen after the long restrictions.

A week before the shoot, I travelled to the location to scout it out and make some creative decisions for our upcoming day. The main colour scheme for the branding is blue, and the interior of the gym matched this theme. Therefore I knew instantly that I wanted to incorporate some blue lighting into the shots. It was also decided that we use a dark and moody theme for the duration of the shoot, to match the striking interior of the gym. There were two floors to the gym, both of which we would need to make sure we captured.

When the shoot day arrived, we began immediately downstairs and worked our way around with the machines incorporating striking, effective lighting and the various areas of the gym such as the large mirror and the fantastic logo on the wall. The incorporation of the blue lighting was an excellent match for the mood of these photos, they were going to look amazing for VR’s socials and website!

Our fantastic models for the day were: Phoebe, Josh and Elise. We let them take it in turn in various different shots and multiple different machines so there was variety between all of the final shots. It also meant that they had time to rest in between shots as it can be quite a workout posing for the photos on different machines! We made sure that nobody became worn out on the shoot so we could go for as long as possible and get the most out of it for the client.

After shooting downstairs on as many machines as possible, we then moved upstairs to shoot some more. The majority of upstairs was mainly for the purpose of cardio, much to the joy our our fantastic models! There was also a mirror upstairs which we incorporated into the shoot as well with the various exercises and machines that were being showcased.

The lighting stayed very similar for the duration of the shoot to create continuity in the final images. Once we had finished this portion of the shoot then we were quickly back downstairs to take some shots in the reception area and the recreational sitting zones, which were shot a bit more bright and airy for a more commercial look.

Following this, the models were able to relax and I went around taking some interior shots of the gym for the website.