So I just got home a few days ago from Atlanta, GA for the 2016 USAPL Raw Nationals. With over 1,200 lifters, the event last from Wednesday-Sunday. I knew I was going out there with a mission of shooting some De Novo athletes, but I also wanted to squeeze in a personal project while out there.

I've always wanted to take some portraits of some elite lifters in their environment. I've never seen it done before personally, and I think I discovered how difficult it may be.

Usually when I am photographing a person, theres a submission of time & focus between myself, and the subject. In this case, I knew that if I wanted to photograph these athletes, I would have very little time to do so (maybe 30 seconds), I would have to gauge a more convenient time to ask each person, and I would have to make it somewhat comfortable for them so it wouldn't throw off their game. With a few of these however, I got to catch a few lifters that may not have been competing on the day I was shooting so they ultimately had more availability.

Given this was my first attempt at doing such a project, I was pretty happy with the outcome, and it was cool to pay it back to the sport with having something to give as a gift to the elite. Remember, these are only a HANDFUL of the elite lifters that competed. They were people I either knew by association, or met that day and asked for a quick picture. There were many other people I wanted to photograph, so maybe next time this project may be priority to do so.

Enjoy.