Natural Light Portraits: Lana in the Forest

"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
- John Muir

I went back to my roots last weekend with a very simple shoot with a new collaborator, Lana.

I love shooting in natural light, and I am very pleased with the way these photos came out, with a variety of styles and moods. Lana did a great job of capturing the raw expressiveness I had hoped to capture with this project.

Photographed in Gulf Breeze, FL: CrossFit Gulf Breeze

If you follow me on social media, chances are that you have seen my growing involvement/fascination with CrossFit over the last five months.

I've always enjoyed physical activity. After ten years of training in Yoshukai karate and weightlifting for the past five years, giving CrossFit a shot was the next logical step in my ongoing search for novelty and fitness.

I joined CrossFit Gulf Breeze because of its reputation for the safest and most technically sound coaching in the area. I also knew a few people who trained there. Within two training sessions, I was addicted.

CrossFit is extreme by most standards, but that's why I'm there; I love the challenge. It's why people talk about it so much. Intense training self-selects participants who are naturally competitive and ambitious, which is one reason I think people label it as a cult. CrossFit doesn't instill that in people, it simply brings out and amplifies driven personalities.

Coach Jarrett Venn purchased CFGB from founding owner Andrew Tucker over the summer, just before I joined in June. In addition to intensifying the programming to a heavy emphasis on competition-style conditioning, JV has been gradually upgrading the equipment and marketing ever since. He didn't have a large library of content on hand for flyers and social media, so I offered to step in and lend a hand.

I chose to go with a gritty, Spartan style of imagery for the class that I shot. I came in on a Friday afternoon that was positively serendipitous with its very visual and intense workout, good crowd and presence of an adorable husky pup who I am fairly certain will become the resident Box Dog.

 

CrossFit Gulf Breeze

3106 Gulf Breeze Pkwy

Gulf Breeze, FL 32563

www.crossfitgulfbreeze.com

850-203-1798