PLANNING

STEPS I TOOK LEADING TOWARDS THE FINAL PHOTO SHOOT

Before even beginning the photo shoot I decided to brainstorm various ideas regarding the final shoot and how i wanted it to take place. Below are some of steps i took before:

THE MODEL

My main goal was trying to keep the contents of my magazine entirely authentic and wanted to include an athlete who was personally affected by the smog/air pollution. So I decided to cast my good friend and England international polo professional, Edward-Banner-Eve. Edward or more commonly known as just ED in the polo community is a player that has been participating in both Islamabad and Lahore polo seasons alongside me for the past 4 years.

Another unlikely model in my photo shoot was a horse owned by my personally known as Rumba. Air pollution not only affects the athlete but also the animals included in the sport. In polo the horse is considered an athlete as well.

THE LOCATION

The location was pretty easy to decide and i already had the perfect place in mind which was the Lahore Polo & Country Club. It is a relatively new polo club located in Defense housing society Phase 8 in Lahore. It consists of 3 grounds and the highest level of polo in Pakistan is played there.

THE PROPS

I wanted my model to most importantly wear something sports related. It took quite a while to find something that was meant to be worn by athletes as well as help in minimizing the affects of the pollution. After some time i found a hoodie on H&M that matched both properties. This hoodie in particular zipped up all the way to the nose which would help in blocking the smog. So i decided to order this hoodie prior to my photo shoot.

Also to make it even more authentic than it already was I wanted my model to wear white jeans too. In polo each player is required to wear white jeans while playing. In addition to this I also wanted my model to wear polo boots as well as knee guards both being necessity to play in each game.

WHAT I ENVISIONED MY COVER TO LOOK LIKE

Before planning out my cover I decided to take a look at other various sports magazines and decided to form a mood board to show what type of magazines I was looking towards.

After making this mood board, I decided to make a rough sketch for my magazine cover. I was aiming to showcase the disgusted but natural expression of my model in reaction to the air pollution and in addition to this wanted to show that it was not only the horse that was getting affected by it. Another thing to take into notice is my lack of artistic skill which made it extremely hard. In the end this is what my rough sketch looked like:

THE FINAL PHOTO SHOOT

Finally after all my research and planning I decided to set a time for my photo shoot and wasted no time in setting it up. I decided that the photo shoot would take place after one of my games in Lahore Polo & Country Club. I made sure that my model was wearing the props that were planned for this shoot and that the lighting was perfect for the shoot and it took place at 2 – 3 pm. After countless attempts I believe the final picture was exactly what I wanted as shown below: