Creating colourful motion blur: photographing para sprinter Libby Clegg

Turning his attention to Libby's portrait, Samo wanted to tell the sprinter's story in a creative way, and came up with the idea of letting a narrow strip of light run across her eyes. But, without access to a flag (a lighting device used in motion and still photography to block light), the technique he used proved more difficult than expected.

"There are special light-shaping tools that can give you these effects, but they're quite specialist and I found it impossible to track one down in time for the shoot," says Samo. "The rental companies didn't have any available, and I even contacted my lighting manufacturer's factory – to no avail!"

But then he had an idea. "I bought some black cinefoil [a matte black aluminium material that absorbs light] and started experimenting with it on my son at home," he continues. "By cutting a narrow strip in the foil – about one centimetre wide and five centimetres long – and placing it in front of my flash, I was able to block out all the light except a narrow strip on the subject's face."

To create an environmental portrait that really told the story, Samo placed Libby on a running track, with her starting blocks and running shoes in the background. He put a spotlight on the starting blocks and shoes, while making sure that there was enough light to define Libby's face and body – he pointed one studio flash at the starting block and used a small backlight to outline Libby's shoulder, neck and hair. Meanwhile, the flash modified with cinefoil was placed in front of her to illuminate her eyes.