I was commissioned to photograph action and lifestyle content for the Ski Club of Great Britain at the SIGB ski test in La Clusaz, France for Winter Season 2025.
The images were created to support the club’s member magazine, SKI its holiday business Fresh Tracks and its social media channels.
The shoot took place on the La Balme side of the mountain, surrounded by the rugged peaks and huge landscapes of the Aravis Mountains. It's a dramatic, unique setting, the scale of the mountains giving the photographs a strong sense of atmosphere and adventure.
La Balme has a raw and powerful quality, coupled with huge dramatic valleys that often produce incredible cloud inversions, especially in late Decemeber and early January.
The rugged terrain, changing light and surrounding peaks gave the photographs plenty of natural drama. The setting also helped create a varied collection of images that could work across the member magazine, holiday content and social media.
I initially processed the images in colour and then sent them off to the Ski Club, they were over the moon!
Then, a few weeks later I decided to have a look at them in black and white because the photographs had a strong sense of contrast and atmosphere. Removing the colour brought more attention to the movement of the skiers, the texture of the snow and the shapes of the mountains around La Balme.
The black and white treatment also gave the images a timeless quality. They feel less tied to one particular season and more focused on the experience of being in the mountains.
The shoot was commissioned to create a dynamic collection of ski content for the Ski Club of Great Britain and its members. The images needed to work for editorial, marketing and digital channels, from the pages of SKI magazine to Fresh Tracks holiday content and social media.
I photographed a mixture of skiing, ski lifestyle and wider mountain scenes so the final set could be used in different ways needed and gave the team a fresh look across their various platforms.
I have to say, after 30 plus years of shooting skiing the two days we had either side of rain on this shoot where up there with the best of them. The first day was heavy rain at the base of the mountain but the tempreture dropped significantly over night and the precipitation turned to beautifully light, very deep, very cold powder snow.
Couple that with the remarkable talent we had gracing the lens... Well it's hard to fail!
I handled the photography and post production for the shoot, selecting and processing the final images to create a consistent look throughout the collection in both colour and black and white.
While I did not handle the wider production on this occasion, I regularly work with brands, agencies and organisations either as the photographer within an existing production or as part of a broader service that can include location finding, casting, shoot logistics and post production.
For marketing managers and art buyers, this means I can fit into an established team when you already have production support, while also offering a wider solution when you need one photographer to help bring the project together.
You can view the Ski Club of Great Britain gallery here.
