These are some of my best friends, but also my extended family. Dave Shephard and Annie Olson are closer to me than my actual siblings. They're both extremely giving with their time and energy, but some of the most interesting people I've had the opportunity to meet in my adult life. I remember doing this workout with these guys last summer and it kicked my ass. Dave always pushed me to go past the point of "If I quit here I'm okay with that". He's wicked smart and is busy getting an MBA at Harvard Business School, but I can't wait until he comes back in a year and a half.And Annie.... A whole other level of special person. I'm lucky to call her my friend. 
Main Page Number Fifteen
And closing out the month of November with 5 main page photos is Frankie! When you're hot you're hot and his CrossFit Inferno shirt is symbolic for the amount of fire I've been on. Although, I know it's always cyclical so it's important for me to keep learning, working, and honing my skill to be ready for the next opportunity that presents itself.Frank is one of my favorite members at CrossFit Loft, he's got an incredible sense of humor, he's fun, and he listens. He's due to have a baby soon, so he won't be getting much sleep. Funny back story, he sent this picture to his friends and they all complained about the flag being backwards (it has since been corrected).
Fourteen on the Main Page
Here's another main page photo of Chelsea Jung, I was on a plane sitting next to Cole Sager when this one popped up. He was congratulating me on getting a handful of photos on the main page and as I went to CrossFit.com to explain the formula this one appeared at the top of the page. My fourth in the month of November, and from my home gym. My favorite subtle detail is Chelsea's purple hair.This was from the CrossFit Team Series
Main Page Baker's Dozen
Just like the last pic on the main page, this one displays an incredible amount of strength from one of my favorite women in the CrossFit community, Kelsey Nagel. She is the most beautiful woman wherever she goes, she's as strong as the men, and as nice a person as you will meet. Kelsey and I both started at Xplore CrossFit in Downtown Seattle, and you could see the immense talent she was from the minute she started.She was on the CrossFit Marysville team that finished 3rd at the Reebok CrossFit Games in 2014.
A Dozen on the Main Page
This is easily one of my top 5 favorite CrossFit photos I've taken this year. I tell everyone that watching the women perform CrossFit is much more impressive than what the men do. I love how it empowers women, which in turn translates into confidence outside of the gym. They don't need men to open their jars or carry their groceries. I love that my wife can kick more ass than all of my male friends that don't do CrossFit. I love that every time we meet someone new they look at my wife's arms and say they need to start working out. Here's Sarah at the Battle on Admiral in West Seattle, kicking ass and taking names.
Muscles For Marysville
There's one thing that I hate about my life right now, my wife and I work too much and it takes away from our ability to volunteer in our communities. We both work full-time jobs, we have our CrossFit schedule, we coach once or twice a week at the gym, I've been taking on photography projects almost every weekend, and then we tack on a full social schedule so we don't lose touch of friends. We get home most nights between 8 and 9:30PM and do it all over again. When I was asked to cover this event that was raising money for the victims of the Marysville shootings - I told them I wanted to volunteer and not be paid for this. I often have strong emotional reactions when I'm taking pictures, but these moments when I can give back for a great cause last with me for much longer.I'm very thankful for the CrossFit community and the overwhelming support that it continues to display for those in need. This day there were over $50,000 raised. Here's my pic of Cole Sager, Noah Pester, and Ryan Swobody that made it on the main page November 6th, and if you'd like to see the rest of my photos from the event you can go to the CrossFit Loft facebook albumMuscles for Marysville Album 
Main Page Double Digits
Well that was certainly unexpected, but back-to-back main page photos is by far the best CrossFit photography experience for me. Part of that might be because the first three times I made it on CrossFit.com, I didn’t find out until a week later….. Noob, I know.I really liked this picture of Kellan Cerillo, and I think it captures the story perfectly. You don't see any other athletes in the picture, because Kellen was putting in the work on his own time. This was taken in the summer and you can see how the picture captures his work ethic and intensity, showing true grit with the desire to improve. Thank you to Dan Cerillo for hosting me that afternoon and letting me take pics. I sent this to him right after I took it and told him to have his son autograph it before he gets too famous. 
CrossFit.com Main Page Number Nine
I feel like my photography is very cyclical, just like my dating life when I was single, job hunt when unemployed, and performances doing CrossFIt. Sometimes you hit a lull, and other times it seems it feels like the universe is perfectly aligned to reward you. Two main page photos in 9 days, which is actually the second time this has happened for me. I find consistency to be the hardest aspect of sports or personal relationships , but as I continue to grow as a photographer, consistincy is what I'm seeking. This photo was part of the CrossFit Team Series and I thought it had main page potential when I saw it. It tells a story, has an elite athlete, olympic lifitng and American flag. 
CrosFit.com Main Page Number Eight
One of my favorite things about photography is that it's a continuous learning experience. I wish I knew immediately if I wanted a picture to lean towards the warm or cool side, but to be honest, I never know until I play with them. I've started using the SLR Lounge V6 Presets and these have taken my photos to another level. I used to add some of these manually using Photoshop, but I prefer Lightroom because it's faster.I love this picture of Tyler, the blue tint contrasting with the gold shorts. Often I like to take a warm subject and put them in a cooler environment and vice-versa, which is exactly what happened here. Not pictured is that a couple minutes before this picture, Ty was barely jumping. I explained that these are broad jumps and he better go all out.If you want to take a look at the SLR Lounge presets, you can order them by clicking here 
South Seattle CrossFit Represents
Jennifer Ann Sahlberg coaches at South Seattle CrossFit, compete in numerous local competitions and is known by her members as Juicy-J. This girl is pure badass and she has fun doing it. This pic was taken during the final day of the Seattle Affiliate League and just used by CrossFit HQ Facebook page today on the facebook page. 
Lucky Number 7
When I first saw this picture, I told my friend Roger that he should expect to be on the main page. If you can figure out what CrossFit is looking for, you have a good shot of being on the main page. The only tip I'll give is that they look for technically perfect photos. This is one of my favorite photos, because there's a story behind it. This was my wife's birthday weekend at Lake Southerland with two of my favorite families, the Calkins' and the Parks's. Roger has a sweet home gym (vacation home) setup and I knew this is exactly what they wanted to see. 
Lucky Number 6
I guess photography is no different than everything else in life that comes in waves. I had my first two main page photos within the same week last November, got one more in December of 2013 then BAM! three within five weeks. I never realized how big of a difference a full-frame camera would make. I talked myself out of one for about six months saying that I didn't need a wider landscape, but I've seen a big change in my photo quality, most notably less amputations of limbs. I think three main page photos in that short time is evidence of that. I still believe that 80% of taking good CrossFit photos is being there to capture the moment. The other twenty percent is divided evenly between knowing the camera inside and out (the boring part) and knowing where to be in relation to the athlete (experience). One last thing to note is that I couldn't be more proud of the fact these last three have all been at CrossFit Loft in West Seattle. 
InstaCrossFit
I love when CrossFit HQ uses my photos on their social media, and it happened three times in the last two days, twice on Instagram and once on Facebook. The picture of Tommy Hackenbruck was probably my favorite from the Southwest Regional, and then Rory is one of my favorite people in the sport. The one on Facebook was of Sae Young, the daughter of two of our members. She's adorable 
Numero Cinco
Another great moment for me as my 5th photo makes it on the main page of CrossFit.com. This is the second time this month after Avery had a picture on May 4thThis is Britt Kelly playing with the Atlas stones at CrossFit Loft.
I Should Have Bought a Lottery Ticket
What an amazing weekend! We had the Stoneway Resolution Revolution Throwdown over in Queen Anne with my amazing teammate Annie Olson. We went up against my wife and training partner Dave. My sister-in-law competed, as well as my great friends Pete and Jodi from Xplore CrossFit. We were all in the same heats for all three workouts and had a great time with each other. One of my favorite memories from the competition was right before we started when one of the stronger competitors (Tia Wright) said to Annie "I thought Dave was your partner, I was really nervous." So I laughed it off and went through the day trying to give each workout my best. We ended up winning the first two workouts, and finished third in the last workout of the day, bested by Dave and Whitney who finished first. Annie and I won the competition and our training partners were right next to us on the podium. We had lots of people from Xplore, Push Box, and CrossFit Loft cheering us on, which was great to experience. Later in the day CrossFit used one of my photos (link goes to post) on their facebook page, which ironically was the same Tia that had a complete disregard for my abilities.
The next day we went to brunch with some non-CrossFit friends (which somehow we seem to do less and less of with our new community), so it was great to see them. We followed that up with a Super Bowl party at Terry and Rob's house. Amazing food, great friends, and 30 rabid Seahawk fans cheering our team to victory. After the game we came back to West Seattle to get a drink with Mike Kreiger before heading home.A couple days later I hit the 12th Man Parade which was like nothing I've ever experienced. There were 700,000 of the best fans in the world celebrating with our team.
Proud CrossFit Moment
For the first year after starting CrossFit, you couldn't have a 30 second conversation with me without hearing about CrossFit. All of my thoughts were consumed with how much fun I had earlier in the day during my WOD, or wondering what was to come tomorrow. Every day I improved in some capacity, and I wanted to share it with anyone interested in listening (and even those who weren't). It closely parallels falling in love and telling the world. One friend I nagged incessantly about CrossFit was JC Lopez. He eventually went into San Francisco CrossFit and enjoyed it so much he paid for one month memberships as birthday gifts for some of his closest friends to try it. He introduced his roommate (Max Conserva) who has lived with a permanent disability his whole life, and when I went down to the Bay Area for a Cal football game in 2011, Max was on my short list of people to see. He's one of the smartest people I've ever met, and even though he's confident in his ability to learn anything faster than most people, I never thought about how he would be reluctant to try sports. This is someone I had snowboarded with at least 50 times, and he was always willing to try things that I was scared of (and yes I'm a huge pussy). CrossFit stuck with Max and when he came to visit Seattle in 2012, it was the first time in 11 years of knowing him that I had ever seen him wear shorts. 
Fast forward to 2014 and Max is still CrossFitting. He forwarded the email he sent to his trainers which almost brought me to tears. I love this guy and I'm more proud of what it's done for him than anything I've accomplished in the gym.-----------------------------------Kelly & Juliet,Happy New Years to you both. I have been remiss up to this point for not taking the time to tell you how large of an impact you have had on my life. With a new year upon us I thought that it would be a great opportunity to do so. I am sure you get these types of emails frequently, so at the risk of boring you, i'll focus on the special facets of my particular case in the hopes of paying you an original complement.To put it as simply as I can, I came to San Francisco Crossfit as an individual with a tactically managed disability and came out the other side as, for the first time in my life, an athlete. It contributed to a complete change in perspective on how I viewed my disability as it relates to my life and most unexpectedly my interaction with others. Over the months and years that I've participated, crossfit routinely exposed my physical and mental compensations. At SFCF there was no place or time to hide from them. Never in my life had my vulnerabilities been on display to so many.Up to this point in my life I had become an adept controller of my environment. The activity i was willing to take part in was solitary and narrow. Nothing outside of my comfort zone. I took every measure to conceal my disability. I didn't wear shorts. I didn't swim. I didn't run. I didn't hike. I didn't engage in any activity that would expose my limitations to others and on a subconscious level to myself. SFCF was the catalyst to becoming aware of how confining, self defeating and exhausting this parade had been. Kelly, I credit your skill as a PT and coach for convincing my rational mind that your perspective on fitness would be beneficial for even my compromised state. Combined with the culture you both developed, for the first time I let my guard down. The results became apparent immediately.Crossfit begin to slowly chip away at what I thought I knew to be possible. Almost every movement on the programming I had never attempted in my life. Somethings came easier, pressing, gymnastic bar work, etc. Slowly things I though to be impossible begin to come as well. I went from hardly being able to air squat to box squatting close to 300 pounds. I went from not running, ever, I mean not at all, to running to the dock and back. Then twice, then 4 times in a workout. Then a mile. I begin to run on my own. After 6 months, I ran a 10k. I went from avoiding long distance walks to hiking a 16,000ft mountain.Up to this point I haven't even mentioned the specific physical knowledge which has been imparted on me. While this is obvious for anyone that is involved in crossfit, I want to make sure that you fully appreciate what it means to someone living with a life long condition. Dealing with a disability for 20 years is physical compensation writ large. I had no normal movement patterns and I had no idea. The knowledge I have acquired has influenced not only my physical activity, but how i move on a daily basis and has guided the design of my latest orthotic gear. It will be a tool that I use for the rest of my life.I could go on about how all of the technical knowledge is utilized for my specific dilemma but I don't want to dilute the main point. I didn't realize at the time and it has taken a while to come to terms with it but the sobering truth is, I came into San Francisco Crossfit ashamed of my disability and I came out proud.Your friend always,Max 
5 Reasons You Should Be Dating a CrossFit Girl
I came across one of the worst dating/relationship/crossfit articles I’ve ever read and felt compelled to respond to it. The writer had great intentions of building value in how CrossFit empowers women, but she fails to understand how women behave or what men are actually looking for in a significant otherOriginal article by Pam Rehal can be seen here and my responses are the bold font.-------------------------------------------------You are probably sitting there going "Ugh. Is she really going there?" YUP I AM. And let's be honest, you are going to read it anyway, so stop complaining. I can also pretty much guarantee that at some point while reading this you are going to start nodding your head in agreement... I can't wait for that part. OK, so here we go:1. CrossFit girls are seriously fit. Y'all complain that girls don't spend enough time in the gym/harass you for spending too much time in the gym. A CrossFit girl not only spends copious amounts of time working out, but also will only date a guy that does the same. We can't be running around with guys who don't work out. Obviously.Almost all of the pressure that women feel about working out either comes from society pressuring women to be thin or is self-inflicted. Unless you suffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome, there are only a handful of times when it's acceptable to tell your partner they aren't spending enough time in the gym. What the writer meant to say is that having a common interest like CrossFit will earn you immediate respect that pilates, marathoners, and yoga people won't garner. 2. Dedication. If you are REALLY into CrossFit you know it takes true dedication to become the beast that you want to be in the gym. This also usually means she puts dedication into all other parts of her life and maybe even into you... if you are lucky.Let me get this straight, if the girl puts more dedication into the gym by spending more time doing CrossFit she will have more time for me and be more dedicated for things she has less time for? This sounds like the logic on those AT&T commercials with the kids all sitting around in a circle.3. CrossFit girls are (for the most part) "guy's girls." We can throw significant amount of weight around at the gym, be showered and out the door in 20 minutes, hang to drink a beer, and watch the game with your friends. It's that easy.Anyone who thinks girls can get ready in 20 minutes is delusional. I encourage you to set the ultimatum of a 20 minute timer and see how often you're flying solo. I'll go so far as saying that any woman who consistently gets ready in 20 minutes is not dating material. Even I understand that women enjoy getting ready almost as much as the actual event.4. Independence. Realistically, a CrossFit girl couldn't care less whether she is single or not because she would rather be spending her extra time in the gym anyway. That being said, she doesn't NEED you in her life, but if you are lucky enough to be in her life it's because she WANTS you there. Just don't try to cut into her gym time because that will definitely not fly.How low are this writer's expectations of independent women. Woman has hobby, woman is independent. Let me replace CrossFit with cat enthusiast to prove that this doesn't mean independence.A CrossFit middle aged cat loving woman couldn't care less whether she is single or not because she would rather be spending her extra time in the gym playing with her cats anyway. That being said, she doesn't NEED you in her life, but if you are lucky enough to be in her life it's because she WANTS you there. Just don't try to cut into her gym cat cuddling time because that will definitely not fly.5. Competitive nature. To do CrossFit you have to be competitive not only with other people, but with yourself. This personality trait leads to all sorts of fun if you ask me... who wants a girl that when you dare her to do something just sits there and flakes out? BORING.If you've spent any amount of time around women, you would realize that women are actually more competitive than men, but they grunt less. Here are a few of the things that women compete with each other about at first glance; hair, makeup, having perfect skin, who overspent more on their purse, how well their jeans fit, shoes, overall style, beauty, wedding rings, being thin, whether they used an epidural while giving birth, how cute their kids are. Everything they do is a sitting down pissing contest.The second half of the article was even worse than the first, so I'm not wasting more time on it. However, I'll drop some relationship advice for all CrossFit women that will be worth more than what you'll read anywhere else.The foundation of all relationships is based on trust and respect. Both of these are earned incrementally and not immediately given. Three things that will help speed up the relationship process
- Be yourself - It’s important even if you're a Stage-5 Clinger. The quicker you're able to tell the person what you're thinking, or when you’re thinking of them without playing the wait-three-days-to-call – card, the quicker you'll be in that relationship. If the feelings are mutual, it will be reciprocated. And yes, that statement implies that women will be the ones who have to make themselves emotionally vulnerable, because they're much better at articulating their feelings.
- Have a hobby/interest - What this writer was trying to say (and failing horribly in doing so) is that both men and women are attracted to someone who’s passionate. If you've ever heard of a relationship ending abruptly because they were missing that spark, it's because one or both people in the relationship stopped improving themselves. Women especially will often put their own interests and hobbies on the backburner to support their significant other or raise the kids. If you don't know how you want to spend that one hour of free time every day, you're not ready for a relationship anyway.
- Mutual Interests - This ties both ideas together. Whether it's religion, politics, fitness, cooking, music, find someone who shares as many of your interests as possible. If you're pretending to like things that men are interested in, it will come off as desperate. If you know how you want to spend your free time, you'll quickly know whether someone else is interested in those same things.
November
November is very quickly becoming one of my favorite months. It started off strong on November 6th when my boss asked me to update a PowerPoint for him. I emailed him back asking if he needed it right away or whether I could get to in the afternoon. He responds that I need to update it right away and present it at the Patient Experience Committee meeting in two hours, which includes our CEO and a handful of administrators. Meeting went well except for this one guy who fell asleep.
Then later that evening I get a text from my buddy Ryan Calkins thanking me for one of my photos that made it on the CrossFit.com main page (link goes directly to the photo). I felt like this was a huge accomplishment to be selected from the thousands of photos that are submitted on a daily basis.I also decided to take Friday, November 8th off because I'm planning on turning all of my three day holiday weekends (Veteran's Day) into four day weekends from now on. Not only do four day weekends feel exponentially longer than three day weekends, the four day work weeks on both sides of the weekend feel much shorter.Then on Tuesday, November 12th a picture of my wife was selected to the CrossFit.com main page (link goes directly to the photo), giving me another notch in my proverbial photography belt. I don't know any other local photographers who have had even a single photo selected for the main site, let alone two. This is actually one of my favorite photos that I've taken and edited.Fast forward to a three day work week during with Thanksgiving and this might be my favorite month of all time. Since it was our first holiday in the new house we decided to host. We broke up the cooking and did the turkey, mashed potatoes, and appetizers. My mother-in-law brought the apple pies, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and some crab dip. Grandma Toni brought pumpkin pies, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, and ambrosia fruit salad. We finally got to use the Kate Spade china we got for our wedding gifts. Side note : I would not recommend anyone having china on their wedding registry as you only use it maybe once a year. I would much rather have something that we use on a daily basis.
The month ended on a high note as my wife and I sat around and watched football most of the day. We saw the best Ohio State vs Michigan game we've ever seen, and then one of the best endings to a football game of all time in the Iron Bowl. My wife booked tickets to Teatro ZinZanni, which is part circus, part dinner theater. The contortionist was my favorite part, but I also loved my wife in her cute new hat. I'm thankful that she thinks of things like this for me to experience.
Go Bears Daddy!
This is one of my favorite moments of an otherwise depressing college football season for my Cal Bears. My buddy Roger invited me to tailgate with his friends for the Cal vs U-Dubb game, so it was a good opportunity to recruit some new Bears fans - specifically his 3 old son who remembers EVERYTHING! As we're sitting around eating some bratwursts I teach Jonah to say "Go Bears" which he quickly wanted to show his Dad. Roger's quick disapproval telling him "We don't say that Jonah, we say Go Dawgs" let Jonah know how to get under his Dad's skin. Que up "Go Bears" on repeat and that's what you heard the rest of the night. I got this amazing text message three weeks later. 
Weird Wednesday 10.23.2013
Kind of a strange morning for me. If you don't know my wife, she's not a morning person, but she was planning on going to the gym with me in the morning anyway. Getting her out of bed in the morning is very similar to trying to give a house cat a bath with a garden hose.With a couple minutes before it's time to leave she decides she's staying home, then flips again and decides to go. I typically ride my bike to the gym, but we drove and threw my bike in the back of the car. Workout was good, got a new front squat 5RM PR and did a killer workout (100 TTB for time with a 50 Double Under penalty every time you dropped).I was feeling good, and even caught a bus at the last second before it left West Seattle. Something was strange when I got on the bus though, traffic to the bridge was backed up about 12 blocks, which was more than I've ever seen. We get on the West Seattle Bridge and all lanes are bumper to bumper except the bus lane. Apparently a car was flipped on Highway 99 and the bus driver didn't even take the route. Instead he takes the next exit and gets off in SODO and starts driving towards downtown. I've been on the bus for 20 minutes at this point and Whitney texts me asking where I left the car key. I look in my pocket and notice I accidentally took it with me. I get another text from her saying that she left her house keys in the car, so getting a ride home wasn't an option. My wife is a fiery Leo and like her father, lacks patience in difficult situations. She even texted saying that she was ready to break the car window......So I get off downtown, ride my bike back to the bus stop and head back to West Seattle to drop off the car key. The first thing I said to her was "I'm glad you kept your composure, because I almost lost it". We are a perfect balance.