And another one makes CrossFit.com from the FU-Cancer Throwdown. Fundraisers are by far my favorite competition to cover. This one is Rich Wolff from CrossFit X in Bellingham
Main Page Number Twenty Five
This main page photo was from the FU-Cancer Throwdown at my friends gym on Bainbridge Island. I always love shooting fundraisers, because it's more about the cause than competition. I never like to charge for my services at these, so the CrossFit.com main page photo is a great bonus. 
Kelsey & Kyle Do Cabo
Main Page Number Twenty Four
This one was from a coach portrait session I did with Bethanee Randles at CrossFit Outcome. They are some of my favorite people at that gym, committed to creating a healthy community. Bethanee is relatively new to CrossFit and brings that enthusiasm that comes with it. I'm very excited to watch her develop as a coach and athlete. The thing I loved most about this picture is how it captures the Northwest CrossFit Life. 
Main Page Number Twenty Three
Dan is a great member that CrossFit Loft is lucky to have. He has a great attitude every single day, works hard, gets stronger, and makes everyone laugh. I'm really happy that I was able to catch his deadlift PR on camera.
Main Page Number Twenty Two - CrossFit Is Community
This was a sweet moment to capture at CrossFit Loft, even though it's something that happens all the time in every CrossFit Gym. It really is the only sport where you see this type of support from everyone. Sharon has come a long way from where she started, just like the rest of us. She was just featured as the member spotlight of the gym a couple days before. You can read it here. 
Main Page Number Twenty One - My Favorite!
My wife is a total badass, so I couldn't be more proud of this main page picture of her. It shows who she is and where she grew up, but also how strong she's become. I'm sure she dreaded loading the hay bales when they weighed almost as much as her, but now she's got grown ass woman strength! Not only is she strong, but she's awesome enough to let me go down to the CrossFit Games during her birthday! 
Number Twenty on the Main Page
This one makes a milestone! After my first main page photo I never imagined that I'd get a second one on there. To have this many selected on CrossFit.com is an honor. I'll continue to work hard and learn how to capture a story to share with people. This one is my good friend Jonny Peters at the CrossFit Outcome Tag Team Throwdown. I love the owner, Sal, he's one of my favorite people in Seattle. Full of energy and enthusiasm for life. He makes everyone around him feel like the center of the universe. I love that my wife came with me to judge the event, and I appreciate the effort that everyone put into having a great event.
Number Nineteen on the Main Page
Exactly three months from my last main page photo and I'm back on top for a day! I know that making it on CrossFit.com is cyclical and sometimes you catch fire, and other times it feels like the Winter of Winterfell is between me and the main page so remaining patient is important. It's easy to feel defeated and stop trying to find new material. This picture was at the Whiskey Throttle Throwdown with three other great photographers at this event, which makes me absolutely honored to have my photo selected. I'm looking forward to going to this event next year.
Lululemon Ambassador Shoot
Lululemon is my favorite workout apparel, so getting connected with them to take pictures of their ambassadors was a perfect fit for me. I love what they stand for in promoting health and wellness in their communities. Their products are high quality, look great, and actually fit my body.
CrossFit East Regional
What an amazing experience the CrossFit Regionals were for me. I feel extremely fortunate that Kill Cliff had me to cover their athletes in the South, East, and West Regionals. While I did this last year at the Southwest, this was a lot more fun with significantly more experience under my belt. I also got to work alongside some of the best CrossFit photographers in Shaun Cleary - "Super Cleary", David "Benny" Benedict, Tai Randall, Preston Smith, Brian Sullivan, Ted Bonenfont and all of the video guys. I used this as an opportunity to observe their work flow, how they see things, where they shoot, how they cull and edit on a timeline. This definitely helped me to improve as a photographer. One of the biggest surprises is that almost all of these photographers have only been taking pictures for about three years (same for me) so it tells me that everyone is able to learn things pretty quickly.I'll upload galleries in the next few weeks, but I wanted to post one of my favorite pictures of Austin Malleolo in the East Regional.
CrossFit Marysville Team
I'm excited to watch the CrossFit Marysville Team represent for the Northwest at the West Super Regional and CrossFit Games. I've watched them these past few years going from a bunch of badass athletes to an amazing team that can lean on each other.
Commercial Photo Shoot
Working with Cole Davis back in January was one of my favorite projects this year. I met him at the Fort Vancouver Invitational and we decided to invite some athletes to hang out with us and take some pictures. It was a great experience for me to learn from him and pick his brain on lighting equipment. I also enjoyed seeing how another photographer works and creates their story. Thank you so much to Ashleigh Moe, Kelsey Nagel, and Lincoln Smith for hanging out with us on a Saturday afternoon. The best compliment we got was from Lincoln Smith at the end of the project when he asked if we had worked together before, because we complimented each others styles so well.
Number Eighteen on the Main Page
I was really stoked when I saw this picture on the main page. This was another one that I called when I saw it, it has the main page look. What most people don't realize is what actually makes the picture is Chelsea doing the judging. There's a million pictures of handstands, but what separates them is the story that you can tell with them. CrossFit Loft represented again! 
Baby Meara
This was by far the best inquiry to a family photo shoot that I've received"hope all is well. wondering if you are interested in a photo shoot---bear naked, in our house---sound good? ok, joking (maybe). we wanna do a family photo shoot with our offspring, Meara."
Palmer Family
Most of my friends kid's are babies and infants, and most of the time I don't see why anyone would sign up for that much babysitting, but after spending a few hours with this family and seeing the big personalities that kids grow into, I get it.
Battle On Admiral
One of my favorite competitions, I've covered it the last two years at CrossFit West Seattle and they've had three photos from their event on the main page, and a couple others on HQ's social media.
Number Seventeen on Main Page
Why I do the CrossFit Open
If you've ever gone to the same gym as me you know how annoying I can be each year when the CrossFit Open rolls around.. I want EVERYONE to participate, perhaps selfishly. It is difficult to convey how much fun the five weeks will be, so let me start with why I do the open and maybe it can help you understand my obnoxious enthusiasm.To me, there are three main reasons to sign up for the CrossFit Open: it’s fun, you can learn something new, and it’s challenging as hell!Let me start with fun. There is no better time of the year in CrossFit; the Open is by far the most social aspect of the community. Even though everyone works hard and shows up every day, the Open feels more like a party that involves a little working out on the side. This is especially great for me because I love parties and hate dressing up. Last year we had members block their calendars to come into Loft on Friday evenings for "Friday Night Lights". It was great to hang out with other members while everyone was encouraged to do their best. The gym was buzzing with positive energy. One third of fitness is derived from the social factor. That is science, and The Open is exponentially social. So basically, if you are allergic to fun or hate being around other human beings I discourage you from participating.Now to learning something new. When it comes to everything good or bad that's happened to me in life, I always reflect and ask myself what I've learned from the experience. I have heard plenty of people say they don't want to sign up for the open, but they will do the workouts. I know it's different because I was that lame ass person who did the open in 2011 without forking out $20. It is at this time I need to give a shout out to Devin Blais for making me sign up in 2012, if for no other reason than because "everyone is doing it". I told myself I didn't care where I ranked or how I finished, that I would do each workout once and that is where I'd rank. Then the lights came on and these workouts were really hard. Do I want Rich Froning to see that I finished 196th in my region on this workout that crushed me like a ton of bricks? (He did verify to me that he always tracks where I'm ranked). Once I caught my breathe I immediately found myself thinking about what I would do differently, how I could do better, and when my body could handle doing the workout again.My first open workout was the 7 minutes of burpees, I seriously went into it thinking I would get 140 burpees. Seven minutes later and I’m sitting on a 106, talk about humbling. The strategy of open workouts felt like a new component that was just as fun as the actual work itself. I learned that there's still an inner-athlete that loves competing even if I'll never been an elite CrossFit competitor. You learn where your weaknesses are every week and what you can work on for the next year to improve.Plain and simple, when you run a 5K by yourself after work, it's different than signing up for an event and running with hundreds of other people. Yes, you’ll be nervous the morning of, but you’ll bond with those people suffering through the experience with you, then by the end of it you’ll be glad you did it and go out to brunch afterwards and share some laughs.Okay the challenging part. Everyone who participates in CrossFit is prepared for open workouts, but they’re still challenging. I remember last year that each workout crushed me in ways I wasn’t anticipating – either my grip went out, my lungs were empty, my arms weren’t working, or my legs felt like I was wearing cement shoes. I can easily quit on myself and slow down, but with other people cheering for me it meant getting comfortable being uncomfortable. My favorite part is not even that the community makes me feel like Russel Crowe in Gladiator as they cheer me through the pain. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??? It’s that I get to cheer FOR THEM to be champions for a day. I get to watch people do things they’ve never done before, getting their first double unders, first toes-to-bar, or pull ups. You’ll never see more epic high-fives and sweaty chest bumps. I love watching the determination, effort, and grit that every CrossFit athlete has unknowingly trained.I’ll now give a list of excuses that I’ve heard and invalidate all of them
- I don’t have time for the open – This is bullshit, you have an hour to do the workout and all of the coaches in the gym will accommodate you to complete the workout with a judge..
- I don’t care about competing – It’s not about competing, it’s about participating and being a part of the team. Did you love going to basketball practice in 100 degree weather during those Sacramento Summers? Hell no, but you did love making the trips with the team to the summer tournaments. Oh wait, that was me…..
- I’m out of town one of the weekends – The other four will still be more fun if you participate.
- I’m injured – Ok, THAT is a valid excuse, sign up to judge and come drink beer instead
A few other benefits
- Everyone is held to the same standards. There’s nothing more annoying than the people who don’t count reps properly or don’t shoot the wall ball to the correct height. All of that is taken care of during The Open.
- You get to see where you rank compared to the fittest in the world. Not that the ranking matters, I think you just appreciate how much harder they had to work to get where they are. When you’re coughing up a lung, imagine if you had done the 150 more reps that they did..
- Most of the time there’s either a dinner or brunch following the workouts. Those meals always taste a lot better after near-death experiences.
Operation Underground Railroad
This was one of my favorite events in 2014, a fundraiser to raise money for the prevention of sex slavery. A handful of elite CrossFit athletes came out to Tommy Hackenbrook's Ute CrossFit location. My favorite was Sam Dancer with Stacie Tovar being a close runner-up. Huge thank you to Kill Cliff for sending me there to cover the event.
