Boston based nonprofit, the BASE, recently commissioned me to direct and produce a film about their program. I was given almost full creative control with the mission of telling a great story in a cinematic way. Luckily, a great story is not hard to tell when they are real and happening constantly around an organization like the BASE.

For the first time in 4 years and really for the first time as an "adult," I took an entire week off. As a freelance photographer it's extremely scary to take off time during the first few years of your career. Questions like "What if I miss out on a huge job?" "What will my clients say when they can't reach me?" "Will this end my career?" all constantly haunted me leading up to my first vacation. 

I had the pleasure of photographing the "Fittest Woman on Earth," 2015 Crossfit Champion Katrin Davidsdottir for Gamplan-a, an Adidas Group blog. This is the story of that shoot. 

While the girls may have felt they were there just to improve their skills or simply have a good time, they were constantly getting lessons and quick lectures from the ST coaches, who happen to be Mass General nurses, and the BPD. 

A few months ago Reebok flew me out to Wisconsin in a blizzard to film JJ Watt's first reaction to his signature shoe the JJ I Trainer. 

For about 3 years I have helped coach a little league team in my home town of Easton, MA. I've done this for a few reasons. 1. I love baseball 2. I love working with kids 3. Owning your own business is stressful as hell. When I go to the ball field I leave my cell phone in the car, forget about bidding on projects, and just enjoy the game.

There's something majestic and personal about filming this close to a master of their craft, especially for that amount of time. The massive gym was empty. Young girls would enter periodically in preparation for their own workouts but for most of the time it was just Aly and me. We had to figure each other out and gain some sort of trust in the middle of a workout without really being able to speak to each other beforehand.

I had to tag along an actual fitness vacation, as a 1 man crew, without holding anyone back. This means I had to keep up with some of the fittest people in the country such as running coach Nate Helming, fitness expert Jacqueline Kasen, and blogger Natasha Linton. 

I love these kinds of shoots because the goal is to capture a true image. No over lighting, no real posing. We shoot real athletes performing real technical moves and we go all out.

The streets of Dorchester account for a huge amount of the violence in Boston where only 1% of young people account for 70% of the violence in the city. Surprisingly, the city I have lived in for 3 years and where I have called home for my entire life, averages 1 shooting every 1.1 days and has a violent crime rate 123.8% higher than the national average.