A Season of Change: Championships, Apex Motion & What’s Next

Normally, this is where you’d find a blog post dedicated to each assignment. One event, one gallery, one story at a time.

The last couple of months haven’t quite worked that way.

Between photographing another U.S. Championships, launching an entirely new gymnastics photography brand, moving back and forth between the gymnastics world and wedding season, raising a very busy one-year-old, and doing all of it while growing our second baby, life and work have been moving a little faster than I’ve been able to write about them.

So instead of trying to catch up, this one feels deserving of a chapter of its own.

Another U.S. Championships

August brought me back to U.S. Championships for another year, and somehow, my tenth year photographing this event.

There are assignments that become familiar over time. You learn the rhythms of the competition floor, where you need to be before a routine begins, what moments to anticipate and when something happening just outside of competition might become the photograph you remember most.

But I don't think Championships has ever become ordinary to me.

I first photographed U.S. Championships in 2016. Since then, this career has taken me through countless gymnastics arenas, national championships, two Olympic Trials and moments I never could have imagined when I first picked up a camera.

Ten years later, I still find myself looking for the same things. The height. The details. The emotion. The split second between moments that tells just as much of the story as the skill itself.

And this year, there was something else quietly different about it.

I was photographing Championships while pregnant with our second baby.

Baby Mott #2 was still very much our little secret at the time, which made this one of those assignments I know I'll look back on a little differently someday.

And Behind the Scenes, Something New

While I was photographing the gymnastics world I've been part of for years, I was also building something completely new behind the scenes.

At the beginning of September, Apex Motion officially launched.

Apex has been an idea taking shape for a long time: a gymnastics photography company built specifically around the sport I've spent so much of my career documenting. The goal is simple: to give athletes, families, gyms and meet hosts photography that feels intentional, authentic and worthy of the work happening in front of the camera.

For me, it's also the beginning of something much bigger.

My work within elite gymnastics isn't going anywhere. I'll continue stepping onto those competition floors with my cameras and photographing the sport at its highest levels.

Apex gives me the opportunity to take everything those years have taught me and build something of my own alongside it.

Somewhere Between Gymnastics Floors and Wedding Days

Of course, gymnastics hasn't been the only thing on my calendar. One of the strangest and honestly, one of my favorite parts of my career is how dramatically my world can change from one assignment to the next.

One day, I'm sitting on a gymnastics floor waiting for the exact fraction of a second I want during a routine. Another, I'm standing quietly across a reception room waiting for a parent to look at their child during a wedding toast. The environments couldn't be more different, but the part I love about photographing them really isn't. I'm always looking for the moment.

The things that happen quickly. The things that aren't repeated. The expressions and interactions that could easily go unnoticed if you aren't paying attention. This season has meant constantly moving between those two worlds, and somehow, both continue to shape the way I photograph the other.

Life Outside the Viewfinder

And then there's everything happening when the cameras are down.

Our little boy turned one this summer. We're preparing to welcome Baby Mott #2 in April. And somewhere in between motherhood, pregnancy, assignments, editing, emails, weddings and launching a company, I'm learning what this next version of my career looks like.

It certainly doesn't look exactly like it did ten years ago.

And I think that's the point.

For a long time, so much of my career was about getting to the next opportunity. The next assignment. The next championship. The next thing I hadn't done yet. Lately, I've found myself appreciating just how much of what I once hoped for is already happening around me, while still feeling incredibly excited about what I'm building next.

What's Next

There is a lot coming.

More gymnastics. More weddings. More opportunities to grow Apex Motion. New athletes and gyms to photograph. Familiar competition floors to return to. And, in the spring, another little person joining our family.

I'm sure balancing all of it will continue to be messy at times. But this season feels less like changing direction and more like everything I've built over the last decade beginning to come together.

Some parts of this career are well established. Some are only just beginning. And I'm really excited to see where both take me.