I’m 42 in human years, but much younger at heart. I’m sometimes called Sammo or Sandman. I grew up in Johannesburg, went to high school in Pretoria, and then spent seven years at Rhodes in Grahamstown, accumulating degrees, three in total.
MS: I’ve had various jobs… the current one seems to be a winner! After completing my Masters degree in marine biology, I ended up teaching golf in the UK. Yip, a curve ball of note. On return to South Africa after travelling extensively, I worked for Sun International running their golf portfolio across South Africa. Next I moved to a company called EXP, which at the time was the leading experiential marketing agency in South Africa, to manage their Cape Town office, running mainstream events including work for MTN at the World Cup, Coca Cola in Kenya, Milo, and six years of the Absa Cape Epic. It was there I decided photography deserved more of my time and attention as it had been a passion, and a neg on my conscience, for many years.
One of Mark’s favourites for pure mountain scenery is the Jonkershoek Mountain Challenge, Stellenbosch © Mark Sampson
LD: You don’t only cover trail running, you shoot golf and other sports. Tell us about your work, and the incredible places you’ve seen.
MS: I cover pretty much anything that comes my way. My mainstream genre is sport and adventure-related events like
IMPI Challenge. I also shoot a lot of landscapes for private clients, I’ve shot golf courses across South Africa, in the Seychelles and Mauritius, and am a monthly contributor to
Compleat Golfer magazine. In terms of locations, I’ve been very blessed, travelling to all corners of our great country shoot events. Transkei is one of my favourite locations, while the
Mapungubwe Transfrontier Wildrun is a close contender, straddling Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa – in three days, in Big Five country. Work can’t really get better than that!
A more unusual sort of “spectator” during Mapungubwe Transfrontier Wildrun © Mark Sampson
LD: Any hair-raising moments you’ve experienced on the job?
MS: That pretty much comes with the territory. Getting lost in the mountains at
Cape Epic in 2015 certainly springs to mind. I tried to take a short cut back to my car, and ended up doing a 16km hike with all my gear. If it wasn’t for a 2 litre bottle of water lying randomly in a vineyard, it might’ve had a messy end. (I could practically hear Bear Grylls whispering in my ear not to drink the water from the dam…). Shooting in the back country of Transkei is always an interesting challenge – trying to navigate those roads with all the animals and dilapidated cars is like playing Russian roulette, I’ve had many near misses there. The closest I’ve come to serious injury is after shooting a 24-hour race in Wilderness – my car veered off the road and crashed into some bushes that had a 200m drop-off on the other side of them. My car was totalled, but I walked away with a few scratches and with all my gear unscathed!
Another perk of Mark’s job, shooting from a helicopter. Change of perspective helps for great images. Wild Coast Wildrun, Transkei © Mark Sampson
LD: Any particularly amusing moments during a shoot?
MS: I often have reason to laugh at myself. I’m such a loskop and with having to think of camera bodies, lenses, batteries, lens hoods, etc. I’m forever misplacing things. The biggest laugh I’ve had was the year I first shot the Cape Epic. I struck a pose to take my first image, and promptly realised my camera battery was still in the charger back home.
SOX trail run in Wilderness is always a great shoot. It showcases a diversity of settings in the area © Mark Sampson
LD: What’s the most extreme shoot you’ve done?
MS: Probably Mapungubwe Transfrontier Wildrun. Having to cover long distances on foot in hot conditions in Big Five country with all my camera gear can be testing. But it’s incredibly exhilarating coming around a corner to find yourself face-to-face with an enormous jumbo (elephant). At moments like that, the job I have is the best in the world.
Wide open spaces combined with the Big Five, fun for the runners and even more so for the photographer. Mapungubwe Transfrontier Wildrun, Zimbabwe © Mark Sampson
LD: What has been your most memorable trail running shoot?
MS: My most memorable has to be my first, where it all begun: I shot the
Rhino Run at Constantia for a local event organiser. It gave me a foot in the door and mapped the way forward in the industry.
South Africa’s Wild Coast is speckled with fantastic photographic opportunities, particularly when shooting from the air © Mark Sampson
LD: What has been the most compromising situation you’ve found yourself in for a shoot?
MS: Table Mountain Challenge a few years back had shocking weather. A massive cold front was fast approaching, and the entire race village had to be taken down because of high winds. The foul weather arrived literally as the race began. Shooting in freezing cold rain and wind is no fun – you spend most of your time cleaning the lens. It does make for great images though. On another occasion, a trip in Transkei covering the route on foot was made more difficult when I fell ill with a 24-hour bug. Trying to stay upright and shoot in those situations is no fun. When I got to camp that night, I slept for 12 straight hours, and luckily was right as rain the following day.
Australian Lucy Bartholomew on her way to winning the 2017 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100km © Mark Sampson
The diversity of scenery in our “back yard” is always a pleasant surprise. Silvermine XL, Cape Town © Mark Sampson
Shooting in the vineyards in the Western Cape always offers great landscapes and contrasts. Dirtopia trail run, Stellenbosch © Mark Sampson
For more on Mark Sampson’s photography, go to MS Pics
