When your BFF's hit the main page, it's a proud moment. Here's Scott cheering on John Winters at a fund raiser. It's also Scott's third time hitting the main page in 12 days, what a superstar.
Main Page Number Thirty Three
Everything in life is cyclical, but working your ass off and trying to get on CrossFit.com requires a lot of patience. There are long months when I submit amazing content and it never gets used, then you catch fire and they post three of your pictures in one week. I honestly don't submit that many pictures, maybe 5 per month, it really depends on whether I'm getting main page quality pictures. I liked this one of Rasmus because even his sweat is much stronger than the average person's. The rope attached to the sled draws your eyes into this powerful athlete. My only concern was that it didn't show his face, although it gives it a mysterious feel.
Main Page Number Thirty Two
Looks like CrossFit's hottest couple is back on the main page four days later. This picture was from CrossFit Open workout 16.2. It's very similar to my 15.4 picture that made it on the main page (See 15.4 Here) where the judge is actually what tells the story of the picture. Scott complains that he's been on the main page twice, but hasn't actually been working out. He complains about everything, so it means he's happy.
Main Page Number Thirty
Wow, this was one of my favorite pictures taken in the Fall and I think the colors in it reflect that. I really like the purple and yellow blended together, it's like trees inside a CrossFit gym. Katie is a total badass who came to CrossFit Loft from Cincinnati. She's going to kick ass in the open. 
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 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! 
Number Seventeen on Main Page
Sweet Sixteen
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
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 
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 
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.
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.
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.