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Gwilym Thomas
Band of Climbers
Context
Band of Climbers was my gateway into road cycling photography and videography, and it remains one of the longest-running and most formative collaborations of my career. I first joined the team in September 2020, during a period of global uncertainty when I had recently been made redundant due to Covid and committed fully to freelance life. My first assignment took place in Bormio, shooting on the iconic Stelvio Pass before continuing into the Dolomites.
At the time, Band of Climbers was one of the most influential cycling brands in the UK, with a highly engaged global audience of over 140k followers on Instagram. Visual content sat at the heart of the brand, with photography and videography playing a direct role in driving engagement, sales and community. What began as a single week of shooting quickly became a trusted creative partnership. Over time, my role grew alongside the brand as Band of Climbers evolved from a performance cycling clothing label into an experience-led company focused on destination rides, community and storytelling.
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Gwilym Thomas
Strategy
From the beginning, the strategy was to create cycling photography and videography that felt honest, emotional and rider-led. Early work focused on strong, marketing-ready imagery for social media and digital platforms, where photography and short-form video directly supported product sales. As platforms, algorithms and the brand itself evolved, so did the content. The creative direction shifted towards deeper storytelling, placing riders, landscapes and shared experiences at the centre, while still delivering commercial photography and video assets that could be used across websites, social media, email campaigns and future brand launches.
“Gwil began working with us without having ever shot road cycling, but he quickly understood what we wanted from him, and under his own steam has gone away and researched our sport more, getting involved himself so that he can produce even better, and more emotion-led content. We ask a hell of a lot from Gwil in what he does, with a wide range of content required in very limited time windows, and he never lets us down. Hard work doesn't even scratch the surface. Skipping dinner to produce videos for us, staying up until 2am to finish a project... that's Gwil. His photography and video skills are always first class, and he's always looking for any ideas or ways to make our content more engaging, using his own ideas to help us get that killer shot or video. In short, I can't recommend Gwil enough. Just don't book him when we need him!”
Stu Anderson - Band of Climbers Founder
Execution
I now spend more than two months each year producing photography and videography for Band of Climbers across the French Alps, the Pyrenees, the Dolomites and beyond. My role combines action-led cycling photography, natural rider portraits, interviews and cinematic drone footage into daily BOC Rider Diaries.
Much of this content is edited on the road and repurposed into Instagram Reels and digital campaign assets. Each trip concludes with a longer, testimonial-led film that brings together rider stories and memories, used to promote future cycling experiences. All production is carried out while also driving the media support van solo, navigating high mountain passes and tight timeframes, blending logistics, storytelling and content creation into a single, integrated photography and videography service.
