Sport is not just what happens during competition. It is the early morning on the water before anyone else is watching. The form built through ten thousand repetitions. The stillness before the throw, the stroke, the shot.

I photograph athletes the way I photograph everyone — honestly, and in the moment before the performance begins. Some of these images were made with studio lighting on location. Others were caught in the margins of competition, where the real effort shows.

This is what it looks like when someone takes their sport seriously.

Young girl in hockey gear standing on ice rink in front of goal, holding hockey stick, wearing a Peterborough Petes jersey and skates.
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Young female volleyball player sitting on gym floor surrounded by volleyballs, wearing a navy blue and red sports uniform with the number 14, athletic shoes, and knee pads, with a volleyball net behind her.
Disc Golf
A young baseball player wearing a navy blue jersey, gray pants, and a cap, fielding a ground ball on a dusty baseball field with trees and a utility pole in the background.
Female rower with sunglasses and a visor, carrying oars, preparing to row on a river or lake.
A woman with red hair working on the electronics inside a rowing shell, wearing a white sweatshirt.
Two women in athletic gear talking to a woman in a gray hoodie by a waterfront at sunset.
A person in a green jacket labeled "Trent Crew" taking a photo of a rower in a boat on a body of water.
A person in a gray jacket and black shorts sitting on a rowing shell at the water's edge, holding an oar, with a yellow drawstring backpack and small pouch hanging from their shoulders, on a dock near a body of water.
A man in a yellow and black rowing uniform paddles a racing shell with oars on a calm lake during sunset.